Gee whiz I hope the cops didn't let this guy work when they had proof he had mental issues and now they want to cut a deal to avoid going public with that

In the John Geer police shooting case, silence returns, officer sits in Fairfax jail

By Tom Jackman March 7 

For many months, the defining characteristic of the investigation into the death of John Geer was silence. From August 2013, when the Fairfax County, Va., man was shot in the doorway of his home during a standoff with police, to January 2015, there was no information released about why Geer was shot, whether it was legally justifiable, or even who shot him.

Eventually, thanks to a lawsuit by Geer’s family, a Fairfax judge ordered the information released. And last August, ex-Fairfax police officer Adam Torres was charged with murder. But after a brief flurry of pre-trial motions in the fall, nothing. Not a single document or motion has been filed in more than three months, since Torres’ lawyers received a continuance of the trial from its original December setting. The trial is now just six weeks away, set for April 18.

Meanwhile Torres, 33, remains in the Fairfax jail without bond. Prosecutors had expected that his attorneys, John Carroll and Ed Nuttall, would seek to appeal for bond to the Virginia Court of Appeals, but nothing has been filed. Pretrial motions to exclude evidence, or witnesses, also have not been filed.

Carroll did not return a phone call Friday seeking comment. He has represented Torres since the day of the shooting in 2013, but has not discussed the case publicly.

Both Don Geer, John Geer’s father, and Mike Lieberman, the family’s attorney, said they had not heard anything from the police or prosecutors. Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh said he had no news to report. Morrogh was prepared to go to trial in December, but shortly before Thanksgiving, Torres’s lawyers asked for a continuance, saying they had a witness who was unavailable for the December trial. Judge Robert J. Smith granted the postponement over Morrogh’s objection.

Many criminal defense lawyers expected that Torres’s attorneys would seek to have the former officer released from jail before the holidays by appealing the original denial of bond. Carroll had argued that Torres had been working in police headquarters for two years after the shooting without incident, and so was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community. Also, his wife was pregnant with their third child. But no appeal was filed.

Now, defense lawyers wonder if Carroll is angling for a plea bargain for Torres, pleading guilty to manslaughter with an agreement that he would be released with “time served:” roughly eight months since his arrest in August to the trial date in April. Neither side is talking about that. But the answers should be coming soon, as the silence comes to an end.

 Tom Jackman has been covering criminal justice for The Post since 1998, and now anchors the new "True Crime" blog.