Fairfax County Police Watch: 04/28/21

At least two people have won civil lawsuits over Kevin Davis' behavior as he rose through the ranks of law enforcement

By Tracee Wilkins • Published April 26, 2021 • Updated on April 27, 2021 at 6:16 am

Former Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis will soon be the new chief of the Fairfax County Police Department, despite a record of use-of-force cases while he rose through the ranks of the Prince George's County Police Department.

Mark Spann is one resident who will never forget what happened to him nearly 30 years ago.

The summer before Spann headed to law school in 1993, he was stopped by Davis, then a Prince George's County police officer, in front of his family's home in Temple Hills.

"At that point in my life, I was under the ideology that all police are here to help, to serve the community," Spann said.

Last week, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors announced that former Maryland police chief Kevin Davis will lead their police department, effective May 3. Former Chief Ed Roessler retired after more than 30 years with the department, and eight years as its leader, in February.

Freitag worked for the Fairfax County Police Department for five years, from Feb. 9, 2015, to May 9, 2020.

7News reached out to the Fairfax County Police Department to comment on Sheriff Ivey's accusation. They blame “administrative errors” and say they “have implemented procedural safeguards to ensure it can not happen again.” The full statement from spokesman Anthony Guglielmi is below.

"We have confirmed that Mr. Freitag did not accurately represent his employment status with the Fairfax County Police Department during his background process with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. We have also confirmed that a letter Mr. Freitag provided Brevard County background investigators outlining his inaccurate employment status led them to the Fairfax County Government Human Resources Department rather than the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau.

The investigative files pertaining to the allegations that were raised in the court motion were always contained in the Police Department’s internal affairs files. That information would be furnished to any prospective employer that requested such information and received a signed waiver from the applicant, which is routine when law enforcement officers seek employment with new law enforcement agencies.

The Police Department’s personnel file also contained documentation noting the employee did not leave in good standing and his ineligibility for rehire.

Due to administrative errors, this information was not contained within the employee's human resources file with Fairfax County Government and the Brevard County inquiry was not properly forwarded to the police department from the Fairfax County central personnel office when it arrived. Had Brevard County been able to connect directly with the Fairfax County Police Department, this information would have been shared with that agency as it was with the former employee’s attorneys, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Fairfax County and other investigative entities. We take this matter very seriously and have implemented procedural safeguards to ensure it can not happen again."

After Spann was stopped, he said Davis violently took him to the ground and arrested him.

"At that point, Davis says, 'Give me your hands' and lodges me to the ground, throws me to the ground, and proceeds to mash my face into the pavement," Spann said.

It was never clear why Davis pulled Spann over, but Spann was charged with battery, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

In an interview in 1993, with the blood from his injuries dried on his face, Spann said, "I think it's out-and-out racism. The first question he asked upon when we stopped was not, 'What have you done? Where are you coming from?' It was, 'How did you get that car?'" Police Department Must Revamp Promotion Process

Spann rode to the hospital in the front seat of Davis' car. He would later describe those moments in court.

“I have to this date never experienced such racial slants, slurs and epitaphs and the denigration," Spann said. "I remember at one point he had placed his baton next to me on the seat, and he began putting on black leather gloves, and these are all intimidation tactics."

Spann won a civil lawsuit against Davis. Davis then rose in the ranks.

Six years after Spann’s case, Davis, who was then a sergeant, was sued for false imprisonment and arrest of a young man who claimed Davis and other officers essentially kidnapped him for a night.

The victim won his civil suit.

Davis went on to become assistant chief of the department and then led the Anne Arundel County and Baltimore police departments.

"I'm incredulous that this person could rise in the ranks of helping to serve a community, any community,” Spann said.

Davis released a statement to News4 that read:

“I’m proud of my long career in law enforcement that includes leadership roles as Assistant Chief, Chief, and Commissioner in three large jurisdictions. A career that includes a history of reform accomplishments, a demonstrated commitment to diversity, crisis intervention, use of force de-escalation, body camera implementation and police discipline transparency. I look forward to leading Fairfax County into a bright future of world-class constitutional policing.”

Davis did not respond to a request for a sit-down interview with Spann.

“You are never going to forget but you are compelled to move forward,” Spann said.

Jeff McKay, chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, said he's excited for Davis to start and thinks he has a good reputation across the region.

Davis will officially begin his role as chief of the Fairfax County Police Department on May 3.

by Courtney Pomeroy

Tuesday, April 27th 2021

WASHINGTON (7News) — The ex-Fairfax County police officer who is accused of racial profiling and making unconstitutional traffic stops has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence in Florida.

Jonathan Freitag, 25, was taken into custody on April 22 by the Melbourne Police Department. He is also charged with DUI damage to property and leaving the scene of a crash with property damage.

All three charges are misdemeanors, and the Brevard County Sheriff's Office reports that he is due in court on May 24.

After leaving Fairfax County in the spring of 2020, Freitag became a Brevard County sheriff's deputy. He was recently let go from that job, around the same time that Fairfax County Commonwealth’s attorney Steve Descano accused him of making “unconstitutional stop after unconstitutional stop” with “a racially disparate impact" during his time as a Virginia cop.

Descano called for 400 convictions linked to Freitag to be thrown out, including that of a D.C. firefighter who had been imprisoned for 20 months. Freitag pulled over Elon Wilson on Telegraph Road in 2018 and found hundreds of oxycodone bills and two guns in the car. Although in court Wilson’s lawyer would later maintain they belonged to someone else in the car, Wilson was ultimately sentenced to three years in prison.

But Wilson’s attorney said earlier this month that a dashcam video that only came to light last year shows the original reason Freitag said he pulled Wilson over was false.

“It shows that the car does not go over the solid yellow line. [Freitag] said it did, and it shows that it didn’t,” said defense attorney Marvin Miller. “He said that it was slow to stop. The car, when the police blue lights come on, hits the brake, turns on a signal, stops within 21 seconds.”

Descano says the dashcam video shows that the evidence in the case was obtained in an unconstitutional manner.

According to the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, they received word that he'd resigned from Fairfax County in good standing.

But, as Fairfax County Police told 7News in a statement earlier this month, Freitag "separated from the Department in Spring of 2020 amid an Internal Investigation."

In an April 5 letter to Fairfax County interim police chief David M. Rohrer, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey called Fairfax County PD's involvement in the hiring process "misleading."

"To say the least, it is outrageous that an individual such as Mr. Freitag, with a history of alleged misconduct at the Fairfax County Police Department, had become a member of our agency and placed in a position that may have negatively impacted our citizens due to your agency's misrepresentations," Sheriff Ivey wrote.

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.