Fairfax County Police Watch: 02/08/16

Six Cleveland police officers have been fired in connection with a 20-mile car chase in 2012 that ended with officers firing 137 bullets at a car, killing Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, said Steve Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association.

He identified the officers as Wilfredo Diaz, Brian Sabolik, Erin O'Donnell, Michael Farley, Chris Ereg and Michael Brelo. Brelo allegedly fired 49 of the shots, including 15 from the hood of the car carrying Russell and Williams. Brelo was acquitted of manslaughter last year.

Former Madison County Deputy Pleads Guilty To Lying Under Oath To Obstruct Investigation Into Beating

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Northern District of Alabama

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

HUNTSVILLE – Former Madison County Sheriff’s Deputy Justin Watson, 31, pleaded guilty today to obstructing a federal investigation into the beating of a local handyman, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and the Justice Department announced.

According to evidence presented in court, Watson, while off-duty, got into a bar fight with the handyman. Watson searched for the man over the next several weeks, and when he observed the man driving down the highway, Watson pulled him over and ordered him out of his truck. Watson proceeded to strike the man in the face, hit him with a baton and choke him until he was unconscious. At a later criminal proceeding, Watson knowingly and falsely claimed, under oath, that he had never seen the man before the traffic stop and that he had not gotten into a bar fight with the man.

“This deputy, who was sworn to uphold the law, brazenly chose to violate it,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We cannot, and will not, tolerate police officers who lie under oath to obstruct the pursuit of justice.”

“My office is committed to investigating allegations of police misconduct, and prosecuting cases where appropriate, in order to ensure that everyone in our community can expect fair treatment from law enforcement,” Vance said. “Any law enforcement officer who tries to interfere with an investigation into police misconduct should expect scrutiny for that misbehavior, as well. The vast majority of police officers performs their duties with integrity, even in difficult and trying situations, and supports efforts to prosecute officers who commit misconduct. We appreciate that professionalism and want the public to be aware that we are committed, alongside of our state and local law enforcement colleagues, to ensuring that police officers behave in a fair and lawful manner.”

Watson faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. He will be sentenced at a later date.

This case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Stuart Burrell and Trial Attorney Christopher Perras of the Criminal Section of the DOJ Civil Rights Division.

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.