Now you can't say you didn't know

Fairfax to pay falsely accused teacher $73,000


FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — The Fairfax County School Board has agreed to pay more than $72,000 in legal fees to teacher Sean Lanigan, who was falsely accused, jailed and then acquitted of molesting a 12-year-old girl, ending a lawsuit Lanigan filed to recover most of his costs.

The county's payout is $72,838, although that does not include fees for the lawyers Fairfax hired to fight Lanigan's request for nearly a year, nor does it include the fees Lanigan incurred to obtain the reimbursement.

Defending himself against two felony sex abuse charges in 2010 cost Lanigan, 45, about $125,000. State law allows a county or state employee who is cleared of criminal charges to recover legal fees and expenses but not other costs, which for Lanigan were about $18,000. Court records show Lanigan first sought $107,838 for his fees and expenses in July 2010, two months after his acquittal in Fairfax County Circuit Court.

Eight months later, the school board voted to offer Lanigan $60,000. Lanigan then sued for the entire amount.

With a trial date approaching, the school board agreed in a closed session Thursday to pay $72,838: Lanigan's original request, minus $35,000 he received in an insurance payment from the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers union, a school official and Lanigan's lawyer said.

Lanigan said Friday that he is not satisfied with how the settlement came to a close.

"This has been two years of long work," Lanigan said. "It does not make me financially whole, and it's not as if the court case never happened."

He acknowledged that state law did not require Fairfax to reimburse his full costs, "but if they wanted to truly back their teacher, they would take care of me," Lanigan said.

John Torre, a Fairfax schools spokesman, said in a statement that the school board agreed to cover Lanigan's legal fees that were not already paid to him by his union insurance policy.

The school board and Lanigan "reached a settlement on essentially the same terms that were offered to him last November," Torre said in the statement.

William Reichhardt, Lanigan's attorney, strongly disagreed with the claim that the terms were "essentially the same" as in November, but he declined to discuss specifics.

"It took an extremely lengthy period of time to get to this result," Reichhardt said, "which as far as I'm concerned could have been done long before last November."

Thomas Cawley, the lead attorney for the school board, did not return a message seeking comment.

Lanigan, a married father of three, was a well-respected physical education teacher at Centre Ridge Elementary School in Centreville, the boys soccer coach at Herndon High School and a coach of various other youth soccer teams. In January 2010, a sixth-grade student at Centre Ridge told her parents that Lanigan had picked her up in the school gymnasium, briefly fondled her, then carried her to an equipment room and lay "kind of on top of her" on a stack of tumbling mats, according to a police report.

The incident happened while three other children were in the gym with school in session, the girl said.

The girl's parents reported the complaint to school officials, who called police. But Fairfax child sex crimes detectives Nicole Christian and Rich Mullins did not interview the girl, instead watching as she was interviewed by a county social worker. Witnesses said Lanigan had reprimanded the girl for verbally abusing younger children, that she faced the loss of her positions as a safety patrol and in-school news reporter, and that she told them: "Mr. Lanigan's a jerk. I'm going to make him pay."

School employees also testified that tumbling mats were not kept in the room where the girl said she was taken, and that such mats would not fit in the cramped space.

The detectives interviewed a friend of the accuser who corroborated her account. Two boys also in the gym said they didn't see anything. The detectives interviewed Lanigan, who said he might have picked the girl up, but that he didn't fondle or lay on her.

Christian obtained warrants charging Lanigan with abduction and aggravated sexual battery of a child under 13, and ordered him to surrender on a Friday afternoon. He was not able to appear before a judge for four days, time he spent in the Fairfax County jail as an accused child molester. Fairfax police issued a news release with his photo and home address, and the allegation attracted local media attention.

Fairfax Police Chief David M. Rohrer said Friday he could not comment on the case.

Don't worry Sharon, there is still plenty of cash to go around under the table

Lanigan's lawyers investigated and thought they could persuade Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh to drop the case. But Morrogh refused, having previously prosecuted another popular teacher who eventually pleaded guilty to molesting a student. Morrogh did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Lanigan testified at trial that he did not molest the girl. The girl admitted telling her friends she "hated" Lanigan, and she clarified that he did not lay on top of her, but rather over her. The case went to the jury with Lanigan facing a possible 40 years in prison.

The jury took 47 minutes to acquit Lanigan of both charges.

But Fairfax schools declined to allow Lanigan back into Centre Ridge, instead reassigning him to South Lakes High School.

When the school district stalled on Lanigan's request for financial reimbursement, he agreed to tell his story to The Washington Post, which was featured in an article last year in April. Lanigan said the article caused him to receive thousands of dollars in donations to help defray his costs, and he and his wife were featured on NBC's "Today" show.

The settlement of the suit does not cover Lanigan's legal costs for the current case, which neither he nor Reichhardt would disclose. The county's legal fees were not available Friday.

Now you can’t say you didn’t know what the Fairfax County Cops were doing

Virginia Supreme Court hears appeal in case over police use of GPS tracking

RICHMOND, Va. — A lawyer for a sex offender asked the Virginia Supreme Court to reverse his client’s conviction, arguing that evidence in the case was inadmissible because police illegally used an electronic tracking device to monitor the man’s movements without first obtaining a search warrant.

Christopher Leibig told the court Thursday that the Virginia Court of Appeals wrongly upheld David Foltz’s conviction in Fairfax County in 2008 of abduction with intent to defile.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this January that police cannot install GPS technology to track suspects without a warrant.

Why Police Oversight isn’t the answer.

Let’s pretend for a moment that the members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors weren’t intimidated by the police and suddenly decided on creating a police oversight panel for the county.

What would change?

Would the chief of police suddenly become competent?

Would Lucy Caldwell miraculously become an intelligent person?

Would the Fairfax County cops stop breathing through their mouths and be less insolent, thuggish or brutal?

No, none of that would happen.

None of that would happen because the culture that creates and breeds the incompetence, stupidity and punk behavior by the Fairfax County Police would go untouched by an oversight board and the cops know it. They know that as long as we keep electing weasels to the board of supervisors, police reform is all talk and will never be anything but talk.

Police oversight is the grand magical cure-brought to us by dull witted, unimaginative people who have spent their careers in government and because of that, they can’t think outside the box, they can’t see the larger picture and have absolutely no idea how true life or good management works….kinda like the people we keep electing to sit on the board of supervisors. No, wait, that’s exactly like the people we keep electing to the board of supervisors.

Besides, the board of supervisors will never, ever, get behind an effective oversight board. They might help create one designed to fail, but never, ever, will they allow one that could actually do anything effective. You know why? For the same reason the cops don’t want oversight. Power. Human beings don’t willfully give up power so they certainly are not going to get on the police oversight bandwagon. So give that up.

But, again, it doesn’t matter. Police oversight changes nothing because it happens after the milk has been spilled. But changing the culture of contempt and entitlement within the police department stops the milk from having been spilled in the first place.

The simplest way to get the cops in line and create effective change is to require them to wear body cameras. Cameras put an end to “he said, she said”.

The punks who populate the ranks of the Fairfax County Police will be gone within a year after cameras are introduced, and you know why? Not because they’ll get caught on film smart mouthing and/or threatening a citizen. They’ll quit before they get caught. Low lifes are survivors and their primary concern is themselves. They know that they lack the intelligence to keep themselves out of trouble, so they’ll leave. Those who stay will get caught on film within a year or two.

Another way to effect change is to make the cops bond and insure themselves under a mandate that when they murder (another) citizen or delve into unlawful behavior under our good name, and those actions can be proven in court, let their insurance cover the cost. Why should we pay for their idiocy? Okay, aside from the fact that we knew they weren’t the best and the brightest when we hired them and we should pay some portion for poor hiring practices, why should we pay for their idiocy?

Here’s another very good idea. Dump this chief of police. He was born and bred in the system and lacks the depth to understand the problems he’s created and the piss poor legacy that he is a part of. He just doesn’t get it. Bring in an outsider who isn’t married to the concept of running an 18th century police force in the 21st century and watch how quickly the police force shapes up.

Another sure fire way to get the cops in line is to make public all documents that should be made public. Take away the Fairfax County cops unlawful power to use the “Secret” stamp on virtually everything and anything they deal with. As part of that, once a cop has been reprimanded, make the reprimand public and keep it in his/her file forever. Don’t take it out after six months. Do that…enhance the threat of being fired for bad behavior, and watch how very, very quickly everything changes.

Lastly, make police reform in Fairfax County a political issue. Find, support and run candidates to run on a police reform platform. There are enough people in the county to make it a front issue. Then watch how quickly the weasels who are in office now will suddenly understand the need to make changes to the bloated and political Fairfax County Police Department .