Police accidentally shoot man who called 911 to report suspect sighting

Seriously?

JOANNA ROTHKOPF

A Washington (state) man, who has requested that his identity be withheld, was mistakenly shot by police after calling 911 to report that he had spotted a wanted suspect. Seriously.

The man had called the cops to say that he had seen John Kendall, a 59-year-old wanted for shooting his neighbor, 33-year-old Abigail Mounce in the face with a rifle earlier that day. When the SWAT team arrived at the scene, they saw a man who matched Kendall’s description and fired.

The police explained: “Law enforcement personnel watched as the citizen (believed to be Kendall) exited his vehicle and circled behind his trunk. Fearing that he armed himself, law enforcement fired multiple shots at the individual in order to stop the perceived threat before the citizen could enter the woods.”

Local NBC affiliate KGW.com reports on the baffling events:

The man was shot in the leg. He took cover behind a gravel pile and fired a shot back, then he called 911 again, this time to report that he had been shot.

Officers made contact with the man and provided first aid until he was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Kendall was found nearby a short time later with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was dead before police arrived, but he and his vehicle were obscured from the view of the SWAT team, according to the police statement.

It is unclear from published reports whether the police gave the man orders to stand down before firing.

The officers who shot at the man, Vancouver Police Corporal Chris LeBlanc, 47, Vancouver Police Officer Brian Frances, 38 and Clark County Deputy Anthony Spainhower, 39 have been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.

  

We REALLY need national IQ standards for cops

Revere police officer accidentally shoots himself

Officer's wounds not life-threatening

REVERE, Mass. —A Revere police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg at his home Friday morning, police said. The officer's gun discharged as he was putting his holster on.The officer, who lives in the Beachmont section of Revere, was taken to a hospital with wounds that were said not to be life-threatening.

Iowa City officer accidentally shoots himself and another officer

While a police officer was cleaning a gun, it reportedly discharged causing the officer to accidentally shoot himself and another officer.

The Iowa City police officers had been doing a routine cleaning of their service weapons at the Iowa City Police Department Monday, November 10, 2014, according to a release from the City of Iowa City.  The city’s Daily Activity log indicated that at 8:37 two ambulances were sent to their department on Highway 6 East when an officer accidentally fired his weapon., shooting himself and another nearby officer.

Both sustained non-life-threatening injuries.  The officers were taken to nearby hospitals, were treated and released.

The release stated that the names of the officers were not going to be released.  The Iowa City Police Department planned to conduct an internal investigation.

Davie Police Officer Accidentally Shoots Himself in the Foot

By Chris Joseph Mon., Nov. 17 2014 at 2:27 PM

A Davie police officer was hanging out at Geronimos Bar & Grill, located at 3528 S. University Drive, on Saturday night when the .380 caliber Glock in his pocket accidentally discharged, shooting him in the foot.

The officer, Maiker Sanchez, 36, was not on duty at the time and was having dinner with a party that included other officers from Davie as well as from the Miami-Dade Police force. Sanchez's wife and two daughters were also with him when he shot himself.

See also: Jose Canseco Shoots Off Middle Finger in Gun Accident

According to the incident report, Sanchez says he thinks the ring on his key chain may have hooked onto the weapon's trigger, causing it to fire. Sanchez reportedly keeps the gun in his hip pocket.

The report says Sanchez was preparing to leave the restaurant when the incident occurred. One of the other officers who was at the dinner was walking out of the restaurant when he said he heard a pop. When he turned, he saw Sanchez sprawled on the ground, his foot covered in blood.

Sanchez was rushed by Davie Fire Rescue to Memorial Hospital in Pembroke, where he was treated and released.

The report says Sanchez suffered a bullet wound that ran through his right foot. He also reportedly suffered a burn to his right thigh.

He is recovering at home.

Police say there were no other injuries and don't believe alcohol played a role in the shooting.

Back in May, Sanchez made news when he and several fellow Davie officers had violated the department's "no malingering" policy when they took time off at the same time.

According to an internal affairs investigation, Sanchez and five other officers were caught hanging out at La Placita restaurant, located at 6700 Stirling Road. Department policy prohibits four or more officers to gather in the same area at the same time. The policy was put in place to keep officers from congregating while on duty and thus neglecting to do their job.

The report says a Davie resident walked into the café and saw the on-duty officers hanging out and talking about sports. The resident reported the officers to the Davie department.

According to the report, Sanchez was one of two officers who received a harsher penalty for the violation -- three-day suspensions without pay -- because he had gotten in trouble for a previous, undisclosed incident and was subject to "progressive discipline."

Sanchez is not facing any disciplinary action for shooting himself in the foot.

Fired Philly cop found guilty of obstruction of justice for 2013 arrest of war veteran

MENSAH M. DEAN

The Common Pleas Court jury of five women and seven men found Corcoran not guilty of two other charges - false imprisonment and official oppression.

Corcoran, 34, a 10-year police veteran at the time of his dismissal in March, could receive up to 1-to-2 years in jail when sentenced Jan. 9 by Judge Robert Coleman. He remains free on bail.

The two-day trial centered on Corcoran's clash with Roderick King and three of King's friends on 13th Street near Lombard just after 2 a.m. on March 31, 2013.

King, 31, an Air Force retiree, testified that Corcoran arrested him and took him for a ride to a darkened street after he and his friends complained that the officer nearly hit them with his marked SUV as they crossed 13th Street.

Corcoran testified that he arrested King for being drunk and disorderly, but he released him after King tearfully told him that he had served in Iraq - working on F-15 fighter jets.

"I felt bad for the guy . . . I said, 'I'm going to cut you a break,'" Corcoran testified Thursday.

King testified that he was not drunk and felt at the mercy of an enraged cop who slapped cellphones from his hand and a friend's hand during the dust-up.

Corcoran did not charge King with a crime and failed to document the incident, according to trial testimony.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Bonner said the charge Corcoran was convicted of speaks to his arrest of King and his slapping the vet's cellphone to the ground.

"I think he was just one rogue police officer that, by no means, represents the entire Philadelphia Police Department that otherwise has outstanding officers that protect and serve every day," Bonner said after leaving court.

Defense attorney Fortunato Perri Jr. said he planned to appeal because he believes the jury verdict is "inconsistent based on the evidence."

He added: "He was acquitted and exonerated of all the underlying offenses, so it would be inconsistent for him to be found guilty of obstruction of justice having to do with those offenses he was acquitted of."

Corcoran, a married father of two, appeared downcast upon seeing each juror stand to affirm the verdict.

His conviction marks the second week in a row that a former city cop has been found guilty of a crime.

Last week, Richard DeCoatsworth, 28, was convicted of simple assault. His ex-girlfriend testified that the once-celebrated cop punched and choked her during a May 2013 argument.

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Police covered up Florida State players involved in hit-and-run: report

The New York Times reported that P. J. Williams was only given traffic tickets after fleeing the scene of a major car crash along with teammate Ronald Darby on the morning of Oct. 5. Cops also failed to perform a breathalyzer on the star cornerback, and campus police appeared at the crash scene.

BY JAIME URIBARRI

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Already under fire for its handling of the Jameis Winston rape case, the Tallahassee Police Department is facing scrutiny yet again for allegedly covering up the crime of another Florida State University football player.

The New York Times reported Friday that Seminoles cornerback P. J. Williams was only given traffic tickets after fleeing the scene of a major car crash he reportedly caused on the morning of Oct. 5, hours after FSU cruised to a 43-3 win over Wake Forest.

Cops responded to a 911 call around 2:37 a.m., but only found Ian Keith, whose Honda CRV was totaled by Williams’ Buick Century, at the scene of the wreck.

Williams, along with fellow Florida State cornerback Ronald Darby, took off on foot after the crash.

According to the Times, officer Derek Hawthorne originally labeled the incident a “hit and run” and requsted that the car be held for evidence. That quickly changed once the driver was identified as Williams, who wasn’t given a breathalyzer test upon returning to the scene of the crash “approximately” 20 minutes later, nor did police ask him whether he’d been drinking or why he fled in the first place.

All this despite the fact that Williams, the defensive MVP of Florida State’s national title game win over Auburn earlier this year, was driving with a suspended license.

For reasons also unknown, the university sent two security officers to the scene of the crash despite campus police having no official jurisdiction.

Florida State told the Times that a “mutual aid agreement” between both sides required cops to contact campus police - a claim that was denied by the Tallahassee Police Department.

Early Friday evening, FSU released a statement experessing its "profound disappointment" in the article.

Last month, Fox Sports accused Tallahassee police and university administrators of hampering the investigation into Winston, the Heisman Trophy-winning FSU QB who escaped rape charges in Dec. 2013. That report was followed by a Times story that claimed the “treatment of the Winston complaint was in keeping with the way the police on numerous occasions have soft-pedaled allegations of wrongdoing by Seminoles football players."

Williams seems to have been the latest beneficiary of this special treatment.

“Two-thirty in the morning, people fleeing on foot — at the very least you’ve got to charge them with hit and run,” Miami-based lawyer Elijah Stiers told the Times.

“You don’t get out of it just because you come back to the scene.”

Even after escaping with a slap on the wrist, Williams didn’t learn his lesson and reportedly had his license suspended again. The reason? Failing to pay the $392 in fines related to the crash.

  

Booking blotter back online, still missing arrested officers

By Hannah Winston

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s booking blotter website was back up and running Friday after almost a week of hiatus, but police officers arrested this year remained out of the online database.

On Monday, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw took down the entire online booking blotter “until further notice” after The Palm Beach Post reported Sunday that the agency had deleted arrested officers’ names from the public jail log.

But, open records experts argued, the sheriff needed another way for the public to readily obtain arrest records in the same way the blotter offered.

Lawyers and bail bondsmen complained that they used the blotter in their daily work and didn’t understand why it was taken down without warning. The sheriff’s office has yet to explain why fixing a glitch required the entire database to be taken offline.

When the blotter was restored Friday, the sheriff’s office released a statement:

“After a recent news article the Sheriff’s Office reviewed the operation of the Booking Blotter website and determined that it was not operating in a manner consistent with what was expected of the site.

“Sheriff’s personnel met today and have corrected the issues regarding the booking blotter website. The website is now in acceptable operating condition.”

Spokeswoman Teri Barbera said officer’s names and charges will now be in the blotter but did not offer any reason why officers previously arrested, like Boynton Beach police officer Stephen Maiorino accused of raping a woman at gunpoint and PBSO deputy Roger Kirby who allegedly beat a 5-year-old boy, remained out of the blotter.

When The Post initially asked why officers were not showing up in the blotter, the sheriff’s office said there was an issue with software so they couldn’t redact certain protected information like addresses and dates of birth. The Post pointed out that as recently as last year, arrested officers appeared in the booking blotter with the information redacted.

The sheriff’s office did not explain why.

On Thursday, the agency released a statement on its Twitter account explaining there was a technical problem with the blotter and that it would be fixed shortly.

That statement was tweeted two hours after The Palm Beach Post’s lawyer threatened to take legal action to enforce the public’s right to see, in a timely manner, the records of people booked into the jail.

“The effect of this action is that public records requests for information that was, until now, readily available on the PBSO website, are now being frustrated and unreasonably delayed, which is tantamount to a denial of those requests,” The Post’s attorney Martin Reeder said in an email to the sheriff’s office.

The Post requested records multiple times for all bookings since Monday morning with no timeline of when the records would be released. Friday afternoon, after another email from The Post’s lawyer, the records were released on paper. Hours later, the same records were online

The national issue of mentally unstable cops

Greensboro police officer charged with possession of child porn

Corey S. Daniel

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A Greensboro Police Department officer has been charged in connection with child pornography.

The Greensboro Police Department became aware that Officer Corey S. Daniel was a person of interest to the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office in October in connection with a child pornography case. He was placed on administrative leave on Oct. 24.

Daniel was arrested on Nov. 6 and charged with possession of child pornography.

Daniel joined the department on May 16, 2012.

Sandusky officer suspended in controversial traffic stop caught on camera

BY PEGGY GALLEK

SANDUSKY, Ohio — A police officer involved in a controversial traffic stop has been suspended for 60 days and ordered to sign a last chance agreement.

Sandusky Police Chief John Orzech said Officer Chris Denny received the discipline Thursday after he was found guilty of several administrative charges, including insubordination and failing to be honest.

According to the last chance agreement, if the officer violates any part of the agreement he could be terminated.

The last chance agreement also states the officer must get additional training in report writing and search and seizure. He most also perform 208 hours of community service.

The discipline stems from Denny’s handling of the October traffic stop of Andre Stockett.

Stockett videotaped the stop and the video soon went viral on social media. Stockett said the police were harassing him.

Stockett and his girlfriend, who was driving the car, where both charged with obstructing official business. They have both plead not guilty and their cases are pending.

Stockett says he is now considering legal action.

California police spent $45mn on spy gear with little oversight

Police departments across California spent more than $45 million on surveillance equipment over the course of a decade with little to no legislative or public oversight – and without the public's knowledge, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU report, titled 'Making Smart Decisions about Surveillance: A Guide for Communities,' reveals how California law enforcement took advantage of millions of dollars’ worth of federal surveillance gear to sidestep city council oversight and boards of supervisors. Police also avoided consideration of costs and benefits and left the public in the dark as to how law enforcement was using the equipment to track their lives.

“After revelations of mass surveillance by the NSA, the public isn’t buying the ‘just trust us’ approach anymore. The public expects to know why surveillance is being considered, how it is going to be used and what safeguards are in place to guard against misuse before any decisions are made,” Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties policy director for the ACLU of California, said in a statement.

The report surveyed 118 California cities and towns and found that 90 were using surveillance technology. Only five had carried out public debate before acquisition, and four had public policies concerning use and limits. In total, the 118 cities and towns had spent over $45 million on equipping their police departments.

 The majority of police units were using license plate readers (57) and video surveillance (62), but many were using a multitude of devices to track and survey people.

For example, the automatic license plate readers (ALPR) is a camera system mounted to a police car or light that scans license plates that come into view. They are often used to look for stolen vehicles, but they can record the time and place of every single vehicle that drives by.

Facial recognition software, meanwhile, identifies a person in photos or video based on various characteristics of the person’s face. The accuracy of facial recognition, however, can vary widely.

Automated social media monitoring consists of software tools that collect posts and other information on sites such as Twitter and Facebook. These tools may also analyze the collected data in order to learn information such as the social connections or political views of individuals.

Another device – the International Mobile Subscriber Identity catcher (IMSI) – emulates the functionality of a cell phone tower in order to interact with a nearby mobile phone. Commonly known as Stingrays, a popular brand name, they can be used to capture and intercept the contents of communications, including calls, text messages, or internet activity. Many IMSI are used in dragnet fashion, scooping up information about every phone in range.

In one instance, the report said the San Jose Police Department obtained a drone with federal funding with no public debate and no policy safeguards in place. After protests, the police department apologized, grounded the drone, and initiated public outreach.

ACLU California is proposing a measure called the Surveillance and Community Ordinance to provide transparency, accountability, and oversight. The ordinance is being drafted and will be introduced in the coming weeks.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, as well as the Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, have also both joined the ACLU to endorse the need for oversight ordinances. They are quite familiar with how unchecked surveillance often has a disproportionate impact on communities of color and religious minorities.

“Communities are increasingly concerned about making sure that time, energy and resources are not spent on expensive, ineffective and overly intrusive surveillance systems that create more problems than they solve,” San Francisco supervisor John Avalos told the ACLU. “That’s why public transparency and engagement are key to any decision about whether to use surveillance technology. If surveillance technology is to be used, clear rules must be in place to ensure transparency, oversight and accountability.”

Civil forfeitures need more oversight

  

The Issue

State law allows county officials to seize money or property believed to be connected to crime. The practice is called civil forfeiture and here, as across the country, it's on the rise. The Lancaster County District Attorney's Office has generated millions in forfeiture proceeds in recent years and has a $1.75 million surplus. The proceeds help to fund the Lancaster County Drug Task Force, which the DA says still is underfunded.

In theory, the idea of seizing cash and other assets from drug dealers and then using the proceeds to fight the drug scourge seems like a perfect kind of justice.

But as critics across the country are pointing out, the practice of civil forfeiture is ripe for abuse.

And even two former Justice Department officials who helped create the asset forfeiture initiative in the 1980s have expressed alarm at the way it’s being used.

Writing in The Washington Post, John Yoder and Brad Cates maintained that civil forfeiture has become a fundraising activity for some law enforcement agencies, rather than “an even-handed effort to enforce the law.”

Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman acknowledged the potential for abuse in an interview with LNP.

“If it’s being abused as a means of generating revenue, then you have a problem,” Stedman said.

He said that Lancaster County — unlike many other counties — waits until a person is convicted and a direct appeal is denied before it files forfeiture petitions to allow the county to keep the assets.

The reality is, though, that property once seized seldom goes back to its owner.

In many cases that’s appropriate; the money or assets are connected to the sale of drugs. Where that’s not the case, there is a process to file for the return of your property. If your request is denied, you’ll likely need to hire an attorney.

If you’ve lost hundreds of dollars, and you don’t have much to begin with, are you likely to chance losing hundreds more by hiring an attorney?

Most people don’t even try to get their assets back; some feel powerless to fight for their return.

Consider the case of Theresa Campbell, whose son pleaded guilty to possession of drugs with intent to distribute.

In the course of raiding the family home, police took $300 from Campbell’s purse.

Police said Campbell helped her son to hide drugs during the raid but she wasn’t charged with any crime.

 She never got her money back.

Consider, too, Barbara and Ralph Spring, who are raising their grandsons after their daughter Jessica died of a drug overdose.

They would have liked to have had their daughter’s Jeep Cherokee to transport their grandkids. Or they might have sold it and put the proceeds toward their grandkids’ college savings.

But a drug dealer they don’t even know ended up with the vehicle. After he was arrested, he surrendered the Jeep to the police.

It was later sold by Lancaster County.

The District Attorney’s Office published a brief legal notice stating that anyone with a legal claim to the vehicle should come forward.

But the Springs didn’t see the notice. County officials might have tried calling them — they’ve had the same phone number for 20 years, they told LNP — but the brief legal notice was the only notice that’s required.

Sometimes, it seems, legal and right are not the same.

Stedman defends civil forfeiture as an effective way of stripping assets from drug dealers, and of funding enforcement.

Critics, however, call the practice “policing for profit.”

It turns on its head a basic tenet of American justice: Law enforcement doesn’t have to prove that cash and other property are connected to crime.

The property’s owner has to prove that it is not.

In other words, the property is guilty until proven innocent.

Civil forfeiture feeds the perception that the rights of ordinary citizens are trumped by law enforcement.

And that perception leads to cynicism and distrust of our legal system.

There’s a way to counter that perception: Appoint an independent ombudsman to review civil forfeitures, and streamline the appeal procedures.

No one is going to cry for the convicted drug dealer whose assets were seized and then used for the excellent purpose of investigating and charging other drug dealers.

Seizing the property of those who are convicted — or at least charged — seems entirely appropriate.

But those who live with criminals, or care for them, shouldn’t be viewed as guilty by association.

And neither should their assets.

Gerry Hyland, working to make the cops even more unaccountable

San Francisco police corruption trial begins in federal court

By Bob Egelko

A federal prosecutor opened the trial of two San Francisco police officers Monday by telling jurors the case was about “corruption with a badge.” Defense lawyers countered that it was about a third policeman who cut a deal with prosecutors to frame their clients.

Reynaldo Vargas, who pleaded guilty to four felony charges last month and agreed to testify against his former colleagues, is a man with an “evil nature” whose testimony was “bought and paid for,” Brian Getz, attorney for police Sgt. Ian Furminger, said in an opening statement to the U.S. District Court jury in San Francisco.

Teresa Caffese, lawyer for Officer Edmond Robles, said Robles “had no knowledge of what Vargas was doing” and “didn’t help Vargas commit any of the crimes.” Vargas, she said, “is a liar and he is a convicted criminal” who “is now pointing fingers at Ed Robles because he wants to save his own skin.”

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Rodney Villazor said Vargas and other witnesses would describe a series of thefts of money, drugs and other property from criminal suspects by the three officers, who worked in the plainclothes unit at the Mission Station.

$30,000 in cash

In a May 2009, during a search of a home in Newark, where the officers were assisting the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Villazor said, Vargas found a shovel in the backyard, dug up $30,000 in cash and split it with Furminger and Robles. The next day, the prosecutor said, Robles deposited $6,000 in his bank account.

In another 2009 search, Villazor said, Vargas found two Apple gift cards, one for $500 and the other for $53.17, in the hotel room of a suspected drug dealer. “Vargas looked at Ed Robles and said, 'Let’s go shopping,’” Villazor said, and one of the gift cards was used to buy an iPod for Robles’ girlfriend.

“That’s what this case is about, a cop stealing money,” the prosecutor said. He said the items police seize during searches belong in evidence lockers, “not in their bank accounts.”

Caffese said Robles, when he gave the iPod as a gift,did not know it had been purchased with a stolen gift card.

Furminger and Robles are charged with theft from suspects and from the city and with depriving the public of their honest services. The criminal charges against all three officers followed an investigation by San Francisco police and the FBI that concluded they had stolen marijuana that had been seized from suspects in 2009, and that Vargas had delivered the drugs to a pair of informants, who sold it in return for 25 percent of the proceeds.

Furminger and Robles have been suspended without pay.

Ex-officer’s admissions

Vargas was a police officer from 1999 until he was fired in 2012 for allegedly falsifying his time sheets. In a plea agreement Oct. 21, he admitted stealing computers, gift cards, money and other property and keeping them for personal use. He also said he, Furminger and Robles had taken marijuana from a seized UPS package in 2009, and that he later gave the drugs to two people whom the three officers had been trying to recruit as informants.

Vargas will testify later in the trial, which is scheduled to last several weeks. One prosecution witness Monday, the girlfriend of a suspected drug dealer, described being handcuffed and interrogated by the three officers, who then allegedly offered her a kickback if she would implicate her boyfriend.

The officers trashed the couple’s hotel room and took her to the police station, said the witness, Kelsey Stewart, where they asked her about her boyfriend’s bank account and motor vehicles, and said “whatever money they got they would split with me.”

Stewart said she didn’t remember which officer asked the question, but all of them were within earshot. They later released her without charges.

Another prosecution witness, Ian Elliott, a friend of Stewart’s, said he heard Robles question her outside the hotel room and offer to “split the proceeds with her” if she helped them find her boyfriend’s vehicles.

The trial resumes Thursday.

Gerry Hyland wants to increase the cops power in Fairfax County

Grassley demands answers from Fairfax police, U.S. attorney in John Geer case

Few details of his death 14 months ago have been released

By Tom Jackman

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), likely to be the next chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined a growing chorus of voices Thursday demanding to know why Fairfax County and federal authorities have offered no explanation, and made no decisions, about the August 2013 police killing of an unarmed Springfield man.

Grassley sent letters to Fairfax Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. and U.S. Attorney Dana Boente in Alexandria saying that even if the shooting of John Geer “was justified, family members and the public are entitled to a credible, independent accounting of exactly what happened at Geer’s residence on Aug. 29, 2013, and why.”

Grassley sent a series of specific questions to Roessler and Boente and asked that both respond by Dec. 1.

“How long will it be before a decision is made to either pursue an indictment or drop the case?” Grassley asked Boente about the now 14-month-long investigation.

“Please explain why FCPD refuses to disclose even basic information concerning this case,” Grassley wrote to the police chief.

Roessler said he could not comment on the letter or say whether he would respond. Boente’s spokesman, Joshua Stueve, said that the Justice Department’s Legislative Affairs Office handles all correspondence from congressional officials and that he could not discuss the case.

On the day he was shot, Geer, 46, was standing unarmed in the doorway of his Springfield townhouse, his arms on the frame of the storm door, and talking to Fairfax officers after tossing his longtime partner’s belongings out of the house upon learning she was moving out. Witnesses, including his father and his best friend, said that after about 50 minutes, an officer suddenly fired one shot into Geer’s chest from a distance of 10 to 20 feet, with no apparent provocation.

Geer turned, closed the door and collapsed, witnesses said. Police waited another hour, while calling to him to respond, before knocking down the door. By then, Geer had bled to death.

Following department policy, police declined to reveal the name of the officer or any details of why he fired until the Fairfax prosecutor ruled on whether a crime had been committed. But after five months, during which Fairfax prosecutor Raymond F. Morrogh reportedly tried and failed to obtain the internal affairs files from previous cases in which the officer was involved, Morrogh shifted the case in February to the U.S. attorney’s office in Alexandria for federal investigation. That office has not offered any details on the case in the nine months since.

Grassley has been the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and is expected to be named chairman with the Republican takeover of the Senate. The committee has oversight of the Justice Department and its U.S. attorneys.

Grassley said he sent the letters because the Geer case “has received little attention, except in The Washington Post, and at least the known facts are concerning. It’s unacceptable for the U.S. attorney and the police department to leave a case like this languishing for so long, keeping Geer’s family and the public in the dark.”

Geer’s father, Don Geer, said of the letters, “I thought he did a wonderful job. I wish he’d done it a year ago. He certainly has asked the right questions.”

Don Geer said he has heard “not a word” from federal authorities “for a long, long time.” In September, Geer’s former partner, Maura Harrington, filed a wrongful death civil suit against the Fairfax police in hopes of learning more information about why Geer was shot.

Supervisor Gerry Hyland said nothing and did nothing when the Fairfax County cops framed a grammer school teacher and murdered two unarmed citizens….and got away with it ……Opps Deary Hyland is the cops loudest supporter.  

SOMEBODY PLEASE run against this coward. He’s beatable.

 The people of Fairfax County are sick and tired of the cops murdering unarmed citizens. 

Don’t worry, Opps Dearie Hyland will probably run into the closet to get his things and then not come out of the closet. He’s beatable.

When Cops Get Arrested, Palm Beach Sheriff's Office Doesn't Put Their Booking Info Online

By Ray Downs

The Palm Beach Sheriff's Office has been selectively taking names of police officers who get arrested off the booking blotter, effectively giving busted cops special treatment over regular folks who get their names, mug shots, and personal information put online for all to see when they get thrown in jail.

A story published Sunday by the Palm Beach Post revealed the practice, which PBSO officials have since admitted to doing. Their excuse is that their computer program doesn't allow them to scrub officers' home addresses and birth dates, which is not allowed to be released to the public under state law. And since they can't take off that information, they decided to just leave police off the record entirely.

The PBSO has done this for all five officers (that we know of) arrested this year, including the recent arrest of Boynton Beach officer Stephen Maiorino, who is accused of raping a woman at gunpoint on the hood of his patrol car.

See also: Boynton Cop Stephen Maiorino Arrested for Raping Woman at Gunpoint

But as the Post points out, the PBSO was able to scrub addresses and birth dates of officers before -- like how they did for Boynton Beach Police Officer Alex Lindsey in 2011 when he was arrested for falsifying documents.

Interestingly, the PBSO's booking blotter was offline Monday night and the link instead goes straight the site's homepage. The PBSO tells the Post it will continue to be offline "until further notice."

Records of the officer arrests are still available to the public under Florida's open records law, but for now, a request to the PBSO must be made to obtain them. But with the booking blotter currently down, even non-police officers will enjoy the privilege of not having their mug shot and private information published online for all to see and use for money-making purposes like charging a fee to take to take the information off private websites. For now, at least.

Jerry Hyland won't come out of the closet and speak up against police murders of unarmed citizens in Fairfax County