Fairfax County Police Watch: Elko man files for sheriff, gets busted for drunken driving

By Dylan Woolf Harris

ELKO — A sheriff candidate running on jail reform came closer to his platform than expected Thursday after he was booked into custody for felony DUI.

About an hour after Ron Rylander finished filing to run as the county’s top law enforcer, he was in handcuffs and guided into a cop car.

Rylander, who gave an interview to the Free Press before his arrest, called himself a dark horse candidate, in part due to his “checkered past.”

While talking to the media, police received a call from someone at the courthouse who reported an intoxicated person, according to Lt. Ty Trouten.

Two police officers arrived at the county courtyard and stayed in close proximity to Rylander. After Rylander drove away, the police officers did as well.

Trouten said Rylander was pulled over for making an improper turn and because the officer knew Rylander did not have a valid license.

Rylander, 51, was booked into Elko County Jail for third-offense DUI, driving with a suspended license, driving without proof of insurance and driving left of the center line. Bail was set at $21,050.

In addition to prior DUI arrests, Rylander has been arrested for disturbing the peace for making repeated non-emergency calls to Elko Central Dispatch.

Because of his familiarity with the jail system, Rylander said before leaving the county complex Thursday, he offers voters a unique perspective. His platform is centered around jail reform. Rylander opposes Sheriff Jim Pitts’ newly announced policy to bill inmates for food, medical visits and booking costs.

Rylander argued the mandatory fees will ruin the jail’s commissary system.

Furthermore, Rylander believes the new policy will lead to expensive lawsuits.

“(Pitts) is going to end up getting sued and end up costing the county more than it’s worth,” he said.

Rylander wants jail staff to undergo more training, and the jail to increase the number of low-risk inmates it grants “trusty” status, a designation for inmates who are allowed to work during their incarceration.

“There’s only one dorm in there for trusties and it’s packed,” he said.

A greater emphasis should be placed on rehabilitating inmates, Rylander said. Along with religious services, inmates should have the opportunity to get treatment and attend support groups, such as AA, he said.

If elected sheriff, Rylander said he will work with Elko Police Chief Ben Reed to continue communication and collaboration between the two agencies.

Rylander has lived in Elko for about 23 years. He’s formerly been employed as an environmental engineer at various mines and worked as a down-hole surveyor for a mining support company.

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.