Fairfax County Police Watch: 02/12/16

From Dave Statter911

http://www.statter911.com/

Supervisor Herrity refuses to let colleagues shift blame for coverup in John Geer shooting case

Oct 28, 2015

Pat Herrity did what Sharon Bulova, Penny Gross and the rest of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors failed to do for more than two years. Herrity admitted publicly yesterday (Tuesday) it was the Board of Supervisors that approved the coverup in the John Geer police shooting case.

Supervisor Herrity spoke up at a work session after at least two board members tried to pin the cone of silence tactic on Ray Morrogh, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Fairfax County. Herrity said, “The Board made the decision not to disclose.” He went on to elaborate the type of information that was withheld, which included the police officer’s name and any description of what occurred. Herrity also talked about the withholding of information about “discrepancies”, an apparent reference to the fact that fellow officers who witnessed the incident thought it was a bad shooting.

Chairman Bulova jumped into the conversation to remind Herrity they weren’t there to discuss “who struck John.” This wasn’t exactly true. As long as the focus was on Ray Morrogh, Bulova was just fine with her fellow supervisors playing the blame game. But when Herrity chimed in with his reality check, the topic suddenly became off limits.

It was an interesting phrase Sharon Bulova used in her effort to divert the conversation away from Herrity’s candor. That’s because it appears Bulova knew a lot about who struck John well before any of us did. The public didn’t learn until January, thanks to significant outside pressure, that it was Officer Adam Torres who actually struck and killed John Geer with a bullet in August of 2013.

Herrity previously criticized the Board of Supervisors for making decisions in the Geer case behind closed doors. But Herrity’s public statement yesterday appears to be the first by someone who was in those closed door meetings, to clearly take full responsibility for the debacle that has harmed the image of the police department and the county government.

The continued lack of candor on this issue by Bulova, Gross and most of their colleagues remains a disgrace. Herrity’s comments are a reminder that instead of continuing to point fingers at others, the Board of Supervisors needs to look inward. It’s long past time for Bulova and company to release all documents and details on the Geer case decision making.

How can we expect to change the culture that will propel the Fairfax County Police Department into an age of transparency when the bosses are still covering up such important information?

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.