Fairfax County Police Watch: Richmond police officer suspended as investigation into websites continues

RICHMOND — A Richmond police officer who once worked as a school resource officer at Chariho High School has been arrested by the Rhode Island State Police on charges of setting up a system whereby people who tried to find the town’s police chief on the Internet were rerouted to a website featuring gay sex.

Maj. Todd E. Catlow, detective commander of the state police, said the arrest of Steven Gravier, 41, a seven-year veteran of the department, came Thursday at the end of a seven-month joint investigation by the state police Computer Crimes Unit, the U.S. Attorney, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

The probe began in Janunary when Richmond police Chief Elwood M. Johnson reported he had received a warning from an anonymous tipster the month before that Gravier had purchased two Internet domain names that were variations of Johnson’s name — www.elwoodjohnson.com and www.elwoodjohnsonjr.com — which, when accessed, would redirect the user to a website filled with images and links to sexually explicit videos showing men having sex.

Johnson told investigators he was so shocked at what he saw that he made a video with his iPhone of what happened when users tried navigate to his name. He gave the video to the state police.

However, when investigators started their probe they found something different from when the chief recorded his video. Instead of being rerouted to sexually explicit material, users trying to find the chief on the Internet were instead directed to a non-explicit website for a M.A. Excavation Inc. a firm specializing in cellars, drains and land clearing and other construction projects.

Nonetheless, Catlow said, the investigation showed that the domain names elwoodjohnson.com, elwoodjohnsonjr.com and ma-excavation.com all had been purchased by Gravier, the first two from GoDaddy.com, and that using misleading domain names was a federal crime.

After Gravier’s arrest at 9 a.m Thursday on a federal warrant, he was taken to state police barracks at Lincoln Woods and then to federal District Court in Providence, where he was released by U.S. Magistrate Lincoln Almond on $10,000 unsecured bond. The charge, of using misleading domain names on the Internet, carries a federal penalty of up to two years in prison, a monetary fine, or both.

Johnson said Friday that because of the Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights he would refrain from further comment about Gravier’s case, but said his alleged actions were an isolated incident that should not reflect on other members of the department. He said Gravier has been suspended without pay and benefits.

School officials for the Chariho School District could not be reached Friday about Gravier’s earlier work as at the high school as a school resource officer.

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.