I was wrong. This isn't about the arrogance and brutality of the Fairfax County Police, this is about the COMPLETE inability of Sharon Bulova and her mob on the Board of Supervisors to their jobs.
You get the government you deserve.
Documents show that Tianti counseled
the Fairfax police to withhold internal affairs files from the county
prosecutor investigating the August 2013 shooting of John Geer. Geer was
killed, according to four cops on the scene, while his hands were in the air.
Fairfax attorney who faced firing
over Geer case will stay employed after all
By Antonio Olivo June 1
The Fairfax County deputy county
attorney who faced being fired over how she handled a case involving the police
shooting of an unarmed man will keep her job after all, officials said Monday.
Cynthia L. Tianti had been placed on
administrative leave in March in the wake of a public outcry over several
aspects of the investigation into the 2013 shooting of John Geer.
On Monday, a lawyer representing
County Attorney David P. Bobzien in the termination proceedings said Tianti
will keep her job, but will focus only on matters related to the county
Community Services Board, which provides services for people with mental
illnesses and substance abuse problems.
“She is assigned to handle Community
Service Board matters exclusively,” Sharon Pandak said.
Bobzien declined to comment. Tianti
did not respond to an interview request.
Sharon Bulova (D), chairman of the
County Board of Supervisors, said the county decided not to fire Tianti to
“avoid litigation and a challenge to termination . . . She will not be working in
the area that involves police issues.”
E-mails obtained by The Washington
Post show that Tianti counseled Fairfax police to withhold internal affairs
files from the county prosecutor investigating the shooting, which occurred
during a response to a domestic dispute at Geer’s Springfield townhouse.
The county attorney’s office also
did not tell supervisors that prosecutor Raymond F. Morrogh had requested a
meeting with Bulova and the rest of the board to discuss the case. Several
board members pushed for Bobzien and Tianti to be fired after learning they had
been kept out of the loop.
Bobzien agreed to retire in June
2016 — nine months earlier than he had planned — and initiated a reorganization
of his staff that included eliminating Tianti’s position. On Monday, Supervisor
Pat Herrity (R-Springfield) expressed frustration that Tianti would remain on
the county payroll — and said supervisors had not been informed about the
decision.
“This is probably another case where
I question the judgment of the county attorney,” Herrity said.
Bulova, who created an ad-hoc police
commission to deal with some of the questions raised by the Geer investigation,
said she hopes to move past the controversy sparked by the case.
“While this situation has been
disappointing and frustrating, I think we’re going to see some positive changes
result from it,” she said.
Antonio covers government, politics
and other regional issues in Fairfax County. He worked in Los Angeles, New York
and Chicago before joining the Post in September of 2013.
Staff writer Tom Jackman contributed
to this report.
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