Fairfax police secretly taped call with prosecutor in John Geer case

Fairfax County Police officers are seen outside the townhome of John B. Geer before he was fatally shot in 2013. (Courtesy of DiMuro Ginsberg)

 

By Tom Jackman August 20 at 9:56 PM
 

In February, as revelations about the Fairfax County police shooting death of John Geer were unfolding, a Fairfax police commander had to walk over to the county prosecutor’s office and make an embarrassing admission: The police had secretly tape-recorded a phone conversation between one of their internal affairs commanders and the chief deputy county prosecutor, as prosecutors were seeking the internal affairs files of the shooter, Officer Adam D. Torres.

When Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh learned of the secret taping by police, he was irate. “In over thirty years as a prosecutor,” he wrote in a February e-mail, “I have never seen an instance of a police officer recording a prosecutor in this county.”

The covert taping of Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Casey M. Lingan was revealed this week in the newly unsealed case file of former chief deputy county attorney Cynthia L. Tianti, who is pursuing a grievance against the county for allegedly demoting her over her handling of the Geer case. County supervisors said Tianti had not advised them of key developments in the Geer case, including her office’s advice to police not to hand over the Torres files, which helped create a nearly two-year delay before Torres’s indictment this week.

At the county’s request, much of Tianti’s grievance file was redacted by Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Daniel E. Ortiz under a claim of attorney-client privilege. Entire pages of Tianti’s 26-page grievance are obscured, and there are no almost no communications between Tianti and the county supervisors that would shed light on what the county’s leaders were told about the Geer case by their attorneys. The grievance does state that County Executive Edward L. Long Jr. had arranged for Tianti, a 26-year employee, to move to the Loudoun County attorney’s office for one year, but she apparently declined. 

John Geer, Shot With Hands Up By VA Cop Who Was Arrested For Murder

Since the revelation of the police taping in February, Fairfax police Capt. Edward O’Carroll said, the police have created a new standard operating procedure that says, “Surreptitious audio recording of individuals should be avoided unless the purpose directly relates to allegations of misconduct against employees necessitating that this type of recording occur.” The procedure notes that it “shall apply in particular but not exclusive to, disputes with other law enforcement officers, or officers of the court.”

The taping, by Capt. Darrin Day, occurred in November 2013, more than two months into the criminal investigation by Fairfax homicide detectives into the killing of Geer. Previously released records showed that Morrogh was already aware of possible anger problems with Torres because he had erupted at one of Morrogh’s assistants in the courthouse in March 2013.

Morrogh sought any prior internal affairs files on Torres, to include the courthouse incident, as factors to consider in whether to charge Torres with a crime. He said police have provided these files in previous officer-involved shootings without hesi­ta­tion.

On Nov. 4, 2013, Lingan called internal affairs to arrange a pickup of the Torres files. But instead, Day informed him that the county attorney’s office had advised the police not to release them. “IA [Internal Affairs] history is protected,” Day said, according to a transcript prepared for the Geer lawsuit.

“Statements to IA should never be considered for a prosecution.”

This was news to the prosecutors. “If you won’t turn it over,” Lingan told Day, “we will turn it over to the feds.”

Ten days later, a meeting was held with Morrogh, Lingan, Fairfax Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr., Day, Tianti and Deputy County Attorney Karen L. Gibbons. According to Morrogh’s e-mail, Day asked in the meeting whether Morrogh planned to use the internal affairs files against Torres. Morrogh said yes.

“His reply was, ‘Then you’re not getting it,’ ” Morrogh said of Day.

“It is alarming,” Morrogh wrote, “that he is the one who secretly tape-recorded a prosecutor. . . . It is even more concerning that Captain Day was secretly recording a prosecutor on the Geer case before the meeting even occurred. I think some explanation is warranted.”

In 2013, Roessler and the police stood fast by their claim that prosecutors were not entitled to an officer’s prior internal affairs cases, and in January 2014, Morrogh did “turn it over to the feds,” referring the case to the U.S. attorney in Alexandria. Prosecutors there subpoenaed the internal affairs files and obtained them, the Justice Department has said, but then federal officials took no action.

But the Justice Department also issued a letter saying it did not object to Fairfax releasing information about the Geer case. So in December 2014, Fairfax Circuit Judge Randy I. Bellows ordered the police to provide their investigative file to the Geer family in their civil suit. And in February, he ordered the police to turn over to the Geers the internal affairs files on Torres. When that happened, internal affairs Maj. Mike Kline was forced to go to Morrogh’s office and reveal the existence of Day’s secret tape, because it was being provided to the Geer lawyers.

After Morrogh sent his e-mail, a police official visited him and said the surreptitious taping had not happened before and would not happen again. It was solely Day’s decision, Morrogh was told.

“I wanted to know why” Day had done it, Morrogh said, “and never really got an answer.”

O’Carroll, a former internal affairs commander, said the taping by Day was “not a function the department endorses, and now it’s prohibited by policy.”

He said no one instructed Day to tape Lingan, and “we have full faith in the commonwealth’s attorney’s office.” He said the recording was “frankly not necessary or appropriate” and that Roessler was not aware of it.

“The captain’s intention in recording this conversation was in no way conducted with ill will towards the Deputy Commonwealth, but rather was simply done to replace the taking of handwritten notes with the recorder,” O’Carroll said in an e-mail.

It was not clear, because of the heavy redactions, why Morrogh’s e-mail was included in Tianti’s grievance. “Raw nerve!” County Attorney David P. Bobzien wrote when Tianti forwarded it to him.

Morrogh later tried to arrange a meeting with Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova (D) to discuss the police and county attorney’s roadblock, but Bulova said the county attorneys never told her that. Tianti’s grievance states that The Washington Post wrote a “story about the failure of the County Attorney’s Office to inform the Chairman or the Board, which was not true.”

But nearly all of the five pages surrounding that claim by Tianti are redacted, at Fairfax’s request.

BLOGGER'S NOTE:  Pardon my language but this truly falls into the category of unfuckingbelievable.  The Fairfax County Police Department successfully stonewalled the Virginia Commonwealth's Attorney, the Geer family and the U.S. attorney in Alexandria over vital information relating to their investigation of the shooting death of an unarmed white man, who was standing in the doorway of his home, FOR TWO YEARS.  And a police officer secretly tape recorded the conversation of the Chief Deputy County Prosecutor.  Whose side are they on?  

Reston family charged 

$5,449 tip on $26 café 

tab at Lifetime Fitness

BY HORACE HOLMES, ABC7 NEWS MONDAY, AUGUST 3RD 2015

RESTON, Va. (WJLA) - In April when Pallavi Srivastava and her husband were looking for a gym with a pool in the Reston area where they could teach their young son to swim, they checked Lifetime Fitness close to their home.

After taking a tour of the facility, they stopped by the gym's café. They ordered two black bean burgers and a chicken curry wrap. The total came out to $24.97 with tax of $1.50 and tip.

But when they saw the bill from the credit card company it noted a tip of $5,448.69. What?

Lifetime had an explanation, she says.

They told her the server was entering his employee ID and he entered it as the tip amount.

Lifetime promised to correct everything, but the next day they called back saying, “Sorry we gave you back too much money.”

Lifetime asked if she would be comfortable giving them back the credit card so they could recharge the entire amount and then refund it again.

By that time she had interest and late fees and the deadline had passed to dispute the bill with their credit card company.

Then came another call from Lifetime Fitness telling her they had already closed the financial books and couldn’t process the refund.

They referred her to Lifetime's corporate offices. Four months later she and her husband are still fighting to get the charge cleared off their credit card bill.

So she contacted 7 On Your Side.

“When we said ABC7 News is getting involved, that's when suddenly we get a call back from this lady who says we can do it,” she says.

7 On Your Side contacted Lifetime's management. They admitted it was human error and have taken full responsibility. They say they’ve been working with the family's credit card company and are promising the full refund by the end of the week.