Fairfax County Police Watch: judge has asked the U.S. attorney's office to investigate

DENVER (AP) — A federal judge has asked the U.S. attorney's office to investigate whether Denver police officers broke the law when they spoke with a key witness in a federal civil rights lawsuit, the latest in a series of high-profile misconduct allegations against Denver police and sheriff's deputies.

Judge John Kane also wants an investigation into patterns and practices of the police and sheriff's departments. Court documents released Tuesday confirmed his request, first made during a Friday hearing in a lawsuit filed by Jamal Hunter.

Hunter alleges a sheriff's deputy not only failed to protect him during a July 2011 beating by fellow jail inmates but encouraged the attack.

Hunter, now 39, said he was attacked after his cellmates accused him of snitching. He said they punched him, tied him up and burned his genitals with hot water from a spigot.

One of the inmates who participated in the beating, Amos Page, became a witness in the civil rights lawsuit. He said in a sworn affidavit that a Denver sheriff's deputy, Gaynel Rumer, knew inmates were planning the attack and helped facilitate it.

Among other allegations, Page said the attack could not have happened without Rumer's involvement, and the deputy ignored Hunter's screams.

Rumer's attorney, Thomas Rice, said the deputy denies the allegations. A police department spokesman declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit.

Hunter's attorneys last month sought an emergency hearing after learning that Denver police internal affairs sergeants Brian Cotter and Brad Lenderink spoke with Page in prison March 10. Hunter's attorneys said the officers told Page he could face criminal prosecution if he testifies.

Before the hearing Friday, Kane listened to a recording of the officers' conversation with Page and read a transcript, neither of which has been made public.

Kane said the conversation showed a "deliberate process of intimidation" of Page, an essential witness in the case.

"All one has to do to see that is read the complaint and affidavit of Amos Page," the judge said, according to a hearing transcript. Kane added the sheriff's department has its own internal affairs unit, and he didn't understand why police were involved.

An attorney for the city, Cathy Havener Greer, told the judge she would look into it.

Kane wants the U.S. attorney's office to determine whether the officers broke laws against witness tampering and intimidation.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office said it has received Kane's request, but he declined to comment further.

"It's extremely rare for a judge to refer a case for prosecution to the U.S. attorney's office," said defense attorney David Lane, who is not involved in the Hunter case but has other federal civil rights lawsuits pending against Denver law enforcement. One of them involves a street preacher who died after Denver sheriff's deputies restrained him in jail.

Lane and his partner Darold Killmer hope the judge's request will prompt the FBI to re-examine that case and others.

"He (Kane) has asked an independent federal agency to take a look at what's going on in Denver," Lane said. "No judge would lightly refer allegations of police misconduct to the FBI."

Hunter attorney Qusair Mohamedbhai said the situation involving Page "only increases Mr. Hunter's resolve to expose Denver's pattern of corruption and abuse."

In the past two weeks alone, three Denver officers have been arrested for off-duty offenses, including possession of child pornography, domestic violence and assault stemming from a drunken brawl. The second highest-ranking member of the sheriff's department resigned abruptly last year and was later indicted on charges that he stole more than $20,000 worth of tax software from Target stores by hiding it in bags of dog food.

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.