Fairfax County Police Watch: WOMAN FILES CLAIM AGAINST EX-COP AND SDPD

By Pauline Repard

SAN DIEGO — One of the several women who have accused former San Diego police Officer Christopher Hays of sexual misconduct filed a claim for damages Monday against Hays and the Police Department.

The woman said that when several officers arrested her boyfriend on suspicion of assaulting her in June, Hays lingered at her home and committed a sex act in front of her, her attorney, Dan Gilleon, said.

The woman’s name is not being used because she claims to be the victim of a sex crime.

Allegations against Hays, 30, a married father of two, first arose in December when a woman reported to police that he had given her a ride home, then frisked her in an inappropriate, sexual manner.

Investigators then began contacting other women Hays had given rides to in his four-year career. They found three others who complained about similar pat-down incidents going back to Nov. 12, 2012.

The District Attorney’s Office charged Hays with sexual battery and false imprisonment in connection with the four cases. Hays, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, resigned from the Police Department last month.

Hays' defense lawyer said after the arraignment that Hays was adamant he had done nothing wrong, and that he was "extremely upset" with the Police Department for not supporting him in light of the allegations.

Police Lt. Kevin Mayer said investigators found a fifth alleged victim, the woman involved in the June incident. He said that case has since been forwarded to prosecutors.

Gilleon said the woman’s claim against the city alleges that several officers went to her home on June 12 after her boyfriend had beaten her. The attorney described her as a long-time domestic violence victim.

The woman claims Hays stayed behind when other officers left, and he got her into a room, closed the door, unzipped his pants and committed a sex act. When she objected, he left, angry.

Gilleon said the claim was filed with the city Monday, along with a petition for leave to file a late claim because the incident occurred more than six months ago. If the city rejects it, a lawsuit would likely follow.

Two other women hired Gilleon without going to police first. One, Gilleon said, claimed Hays threatened to arrest her if she didn’t perform a sex act in his patrol car after he gave her a ride home in 2012.

The other woman said Hays pulled her over in 2012, chatted with her for half an hour, asked personal questions, then followed her part-way home. Gilleon said both of those clients later talked to the District Attorney’s Office.

The Police Department has been under fire for the alleged crimes ranging from rape to drunken driving of at least nine officers since 2011. Then-Chief William Lansdowne requested City Council approval of an outside audit of the department’s hiring, training and discipline policies, then retired as of March 3.

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.