Fairfax County Police Watch: 07/13/11

The Chief of the Fairfax County Police has ordered his officers to plant thousands of trees on county property as a source of generating revenue.

“I figure” said the chief on Monday “That if money grows on trees, then we’ll just plant our own trees and later on, when it grows or sprouts of whatever it does, like then we’ll be sittin pretty and I can finally start up that Tank and Artillery Corp I been thinkin about, you know.?

When asked why he assumed money grows on trees, the chief, a life-long government worker replied “Where else would it come from?” he later added “We need more money to hire more people for roadblocks.” He said “Do you realize that there are still at least twenty cars in the county we haven’t stopped to make sure they ain’t not criminals?”

2 New York NY (Bronx) cops suspended after charged w/assault & official misconduct for allegedly beating informant [1] http://bit.ly/oQf6Wh

Kern Co CA deputy investigated for fatally shooting unarmed ex-NFL player in front of teen son in disputed incident [3] http://bit.ly/o7rQR4

Bayonne NJ settles suit for $100k to 2 men claiming 4 cops assaulted them & 1 watched but didn’t stop it [3] http://bit.ly/pIIgr7

Birchwood WI cop takes plea deal for reduced charges for molesting 50yr-old woman in her home while drunk [0] http://bit.ly/qgSue7

North Port FL police face 2 false arrest lawsuits, 1 stemming from illegal search & other for false DUI arrest [3] http://bit.ly/nWDZQc

Camden NJ cop investigated for allegedly enforcing non-existent law by ordering businesses to close for curfew [0] http://bit.ly/qoqOR4

Newark NJ sued by ex-cop claiming he was fired after he reported that a group of detectives were stealing money [5] http://bit.ly/rsArfl

Los Angeles CA cop suspended after turning self in on 9 prescription medication fraud charges [1] http://bit.ly/pRbbsE

Statesboro GA police officer resigns during unspecified investigation, officials refuse to comment [3] http://bit.ly/oN2743

Savannah-Chatham GA cop suspended after arrest on stalking charges what caught wating for woman outside her work [0] http://bit.ly/npFYtS

Ontario Provincial Police officer in Lambton arrested on drunk driving & flight from police charges [1] http://bit.ly/nmWkZD

New Mexico state police lieutenant arrested on drunk driving charge while off duty [0] http://bit.ly/piBQcK

Baltimore Co MD police lieutenant & wife charged w/trespassing after trying to forcibly take their dog from a shelter w/o paperwork [0] http://bit.ly/pCqV02

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.