Fairfax County Police Watch: 11/16/22

8 sex assault cases unable to be investigated due to destroyed evidence: Fairfax County Police

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - Eight sex assault cases where evidence was marked as having been destroyed can no longer be investigated, Fairfax County Police say.

The department says they have reviewed 93 cases assigned to Detective Cynthia Lundberg from 1994 to 1997 that were identified following a Freedom of Information Act request filed by a victim of 1995 sexual assault.

The Washington Post was the first to reveal the destruction of evidence in Gretchen Van Winkle’s case.

Two separate investigators looked at the FOIA request with particular emphasis on the 46 sex assault cases where evidence was labeled as having been destroyed.

Detectives had no concerns with the destruction of evidence in 38 of these cases, as evidence was destroyed in accordance with FCPD policy. Examples of evidence destroyed per department protocol include cases closed by arrest and fully adjudicated, cases where the victim did not want to further the investigation and cases closed as a police service.

Detectives found eight sex assault cases listed within the FOIA where evidence was marked as having been destroyed and questions remain. Additional investigation into these cases would be warranted but is now impossible without the necessary evidence.

The victims in these cases are all living survivors of sexual assault, and FCPD says they deeply regret that they will not likely be able to obtain the justice they deserve due to the destruction of evidence.

FCPD says victims with questions about an existing case are encouraged to call. They will be provided with a case update and supportive services.

"The improper destruction of evidence makes it extremely difficult to hold offenders of crimes accountable," said Major Ed O’Carroll, Bureau Chief, Major Crimes Bureau, Cyber and Forensics. "The victims in these cases deserved better, and the Fairfax County Police Department deeply regrets the actions of the past. Steps are now in place to prevent such errors from ever repeating."

The department says its policies and practices are now explicit in the way evidence is preserved in all sexual assault investigations. These policies include:

- All physical evidence recovery kits (PERKs), regardless of whether they are submitted for testing or excluded from testing because of a legislatively mandated exception, are required to be stored for a minimum of 10 years, or 10 years past the victim’s 18th birthday, whichever is longer.

- If at any time, the victim objects to the destruction of a PERK, or rape kit, the kit shall be kept for a minimum of 10 years from the date of the request.

- Officers/Detectives shall notify survivors of their PERK ID number and PIN for access to the PERK Tracking System, unless there is sufficient and articulable reason to believe that doing so would unnecessarily interfere with the investigation.

- All officers/detectives shall provide victims with a PERK ID number and PIN, and are required to notify a victim at least 60 days prior to the destruction of a PERK of their intent to destroy the kit.

- Regardless of the results of any forensic testing, no FCPD employee may unilaterally request the destruction of any PERK kit or other crime scene evidence relating to a sexual assault that has been identified by MCB Command, in conjunction with the Director of Victim Services, to be deemed relevant to prosecution.

- FCPD employees who seek the destruction of these items shall request a meeting with both the Commander of the Violent Crimes Division as well as the Director of the Victim Services Division for final review and joint concurrence.

- The status of property or evidence shall not be changed without the written consent of the officer/detective responsible for the item(s) along with secondary approval of their first-line supervisor.

In July 2016, Virginia law was put into effect stating that a law enforcement agency that receives a PERK collected from a victim who has reported the offense shall submit the PERK to DFS for analysis within 60 days of receipt, except in certain circumstances.

In June 2019, Virginia also launched a website to track the location of PERKs to ensure survivors of sexual assault know what’s happening to their cases. Survivors of sexual assault are given an ID number to see where their kit is. No personal information that could identify the survivor is logged in the website.

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.