Fairfax County Police Watch: Suit Moves Forward Alleging Fairfax County Officers Protected Sex Traffickers

A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit against two former police officers accused of protecting a sex trafficking ring in Northern Virginia in exchange for sex can move forward

By Matthew Bakarat • Published May 12, 2022 •

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a lawsuit against two former police officers accused of protecting a sex trafficking ring in Northern Virginia in exchange for sex can move forward.

The former Fairfax County officers, Michael O. Barbazette of Manassas and Jason J. Mardocco of Gainesville, had asked a judge at a hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria to have the case tossed out.

In a ruling issued Wednesday, Judge Anthony Trenga rejected the motion to dismiss. He did toss out some counts on technical issues but is allowing the plaintiff to file an amended complaint that will comply with the technical failings and allows the substantive accusations to move forward intact.

The lawsuit is filed on behalf of a Costa Rican woman identified in court papers only as Jane Doe. She alleges she was duped into coming to the U.S. in 2010 on the promise of work as a "social escort." When she arrived in the U.S., though, her traffickers took her passport and forced her into prostitution for several years.

When she was finally able to escape in 2015, she reported her traffickers to the FBI. She says in the lawsuit she did not go to Fairfax County Police because she was warned by other women that Fairfax County police were protecting the traffickers.

Hazel Sanchez Cerdas pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria to running the prostitution ring and she was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in 2019. Prosecutors in that case said women in Sanchez's operation were required to have sex with up to 17 customers a day and instructed to comply with requests even for particularly humiliating or dangerous sex acts.

At Friday's hearing, lawyers for the accused officers said the complaint was thin on substantiating details and should be dismissed.

Jane Doe's lawyer, Vic Glasberg, acknowledged he still needs to ferret out more details but said there is substantial evidence already to support Doe's claims.

One of the officer's phone numbers was found on a cellphone linked to the trafficking ring, the lawsuit states.

The woman's claims were investigated by the FBI and sent over to the Fairfax County police's Public Corruption unit. After that occurred, the officers resigned.

The lawsuit also includes allegations from a former Fairfax County detective, William Woolf, who was assigned to a federally funded trafficking task force. Woolf alleges in the complaint that Barbazette, his supervisor, took an unusual interest in his work and tried to hamper his investigations.

Ultimately, the lawsuit alleges that Barbazette and Mardocco would tip off Sanchez when police would conduct sex trafficking stings so she could steer clear of them, in exchange for sex.

"There's a whole boatload of evidence to suggest there's something rotten in the state of Denmark," Glasberg said at Friday's hearing.

The lawyer for Barbazette and Mardocco acknowledged the fact that the officers were asked to resign "looks bad, but it doesn't go to show there's some conspiracy here. It doesn't carry the weight the plaintiff suggests it does."

The lawsuit also accuses supervisors in the Fairfax County Police Department, including then-Chief Ed Roessler, of covering up the officers' misdeeds. The lawyer for Roessler and the other supervisory defendants declined comment after Friday's hearing.

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.