Fairfax County Police Watch: The real good guys

Attorneys Donate $50,000 Fee From Excessive-Force Case to ACLU

MEGAN SPICER, The Connecticut Law Tribune

The year 2015 was filled with encounters between police officers and black men that did not having happy endings. But here's one that at least had a silver lining.

A Norwich man who claimed to have been roughed up by local police filed an excessive-force lawsuit and won. Now his attorneys in the case have decided to give their fees to the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut. That total comes to $50,000. ACLU of Connecticut legal director Dan Barrett said he was "knocked over" by the donation from the Stamford plaintiffs firm of Silver Golub & Teitell.

"From school desegregation to adequate funding for indigent criminal defense, the ACLU of Connecticut has a long history of litigating for broad reforms," Barrett said. "I'm very excited that Silver Golub & Teitell has recognized the value of our impact litigation and given us a gift that will allow us to pursue more cases in 2016."

Steven Hyppolite said that as a black man living in Norwich, he has been "targeted" by police. "I brought this case as a matter of principle," Hyppolite said. "I did not sustain lasting physical injury as a result of this incident. But, as a black man in Norwich, I've been subjected to constant harassment and improper use of force against me."

In November 2009, Hyppolite was sitting in his friend's car outside his home. She had driven him home and they were having a conversation in the car when two Norwich police officers drove by, shined their light into the car and stopped. They started questioning Hyppolite and his friend, who is white. Both told police there was no problem, but they were merely sitting and talking. However, the situation escalated.

The two officers, apparently unsatisfied with the answers they were receiving, told Hyppolite to be quiet or they would "make him," according to the lawsuit filed in 2011. They allegedly threatened to pull him out of the car. Hyppolite asked why they were doing what they were doing. He also told them he thought his constitutional rights were being violated.

The officers responded by pushing Hyppolite down onto the hood of the car. He claims they started searching him, looking for a gun and drugs. Finally, they told Hyppolite that he would be arrested if he called an attorney following the encounter.

Following a three-day trial, the officers were found to have violated Hyppolite's rights by using unreasonable force against him. He was represented by Silver Golub attorneys Jonathan Levine and Peter Dreyer.

"Our firm accepts appointments in this, and other cases, under the pro bono program, because we recognize that litigation plays a critical role in checking government excess and misconduct," said Dreyer. "We agreed to take this case not to profit from an award of attorney fees but to help vindicate important constitutional rights."

Hyppolite collected $61,460, plus the attorney fees. "It is our hope that this donation of our attorney fees award [to the ACLU] will encourage other law firms to support the ACLU's efforts to improve police accountability in Connecticut," said Levine.

The ACLU has been active in developing police accountability measures to reduce the type of encounters that Hyppolite was involved in. The organization lobbied for a law enforcement reform package that was enacted by the General Assembly in June which, among other things, provides state funding for body cameras and establishes a right for civilians to record their interactions with police.

"I am pleased that my attorneys are donating their fees for the police accountability to the ACLU of Connecticut," Hyppolite said. "I hope the donation will help reduce incidents of police misconduct so that what happened to me doesn't happen to other innocent people."

Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.

Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities

By Justin Jouvenal/Post

The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.

“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”

Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.

Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.

John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.

Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.

At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.

Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.

Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.

Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.

“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.

Our ink will outlast his career

Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.

Occupation by force

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.