Hey, Sharon now you can't say you didn't know. Fairfax police officer arrested in theft


Fairfax police officer arrested in theft
By Justin Jouvenal

A 12-year veteran of the Fairfax County Police Department was arrested in December for allegedly attempting to take a purse and blouse from a department store, authorities said.
Officer Alexandra Neff, who works in the patrol bureau, allegedly concealed the items without paying for them at Lord & Taylor at the Dulles Town Center, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.
Store officials contacted police about the incident around 5 p.m. on Dec. 28,. police said. Neff was charged with petit larceny, which is a misdemeanor.
A Fairfax County police spokesman said Neff has been placed on administrative duties, pending the outcome of an internal investigation. Neff’s attorney said she is not guilty.
“She maintains her innocence and she looks forward to showing that in court,” Edward J. Nuttall said.

Here you go Sharon, now you can't say you didn't know


Fairfax County police ticket policy scrutinized

 
By Justin Jouvenal


Drivers often suspect officers are trying to fill a ticket quota when they get pulled over, but a memo that went to a Fairfax County police squad laid out in black and white exactly how many citations it had to issue.

In case any officers missed the point, supervisors at the Sully District Station in Chantilly underlined the pertinent section: “Either 2 summonses or 1 summons and 1 warning must be issued and entered per day on average.”

Fairfax police officials quickly tossed out the performance standards after The Washington Post obtained a copy of the memo and began asking questions about it.

Officials said the standards violated the department’s standing policy against the controversial practice of ticket quotas, which are illegal in some states and many say put pressure on officers to hand out tickets for marginal offenses.

“It was an innocent mistake, not malicious,” said Lt. Col. Edwin C. Roessler Jr., deputy chief of police for patrol. “It was rescinded immediately. That’s not the way we do business.”

Roessler said it did not appear that the “minimum standards” outlined in the “Squad Expectations and Operational Instructions” affected the ticket production of the squad. He also said that he had not found any officers who had been disciplined as a result of missing that mark and that if he did, he would overturn the punishment.

Roessler also said he was conducting an audit to ensure similar standards were not in effect elsewhere in the department.

The memo, issued by 2nd Lt. Tim Burgess and Sgt. David Kuhar on Oct. 1, went to only about 12 officers on one squad, police said. The county police department has 48 squads and additional special units at its eight stations.

Nevertheless, it raised some eyebrows. Fairfax County Supervisor Michael R. Frey (R) said that traffic is the top issue for his constituents in the Sully District but that police supervisors missed the mark with the standards.

“If it’s a mandate, it goes too far,” Frey said. “If it’s an encouragement, it’s probably poorly worded. I would certainly be more comfortable encouraging aggressive enforcement rather than having hard and fast numbers.”

In the memo, the ticket guidelines were included among 20 standards for performance, including returning calls in the same work cycle they are received, refraining from sexual or racist jokes, and respecting senior officers.

Most police departments publicly eschew ticket quotas as a sole measure of an officer’s performance, saying they do not capture the disparate tasks that go into good policing. In addition, they are usually not popular among officers or the public, which bears the brunt of the policy.

Chris Cochrane, president of the Fairfax Coalition of Police union, declined to comment on the memo, saying he was unfamiliar with the specifics of the case, but he added that “as far as the union knows, there is no ticket quota” in the Fairfax police department.

It’s not the first time that an area police department’s ticket-writing practices have been scrutinized. In April, Arlington County’s police chief acknowledged a series of memos dating back years that required officers to make a minimum number of arrests and traffic citations.

Chief M. Douglas Scott said the directives did not constitute a quota system but could have been interpreted that way.

In 2004, union officials with the Falls Church police revealed that officers were required to make three arrests and issue three traffic citations during a 12-hour shift. Officers said the policy encouraged them to pursue offenses that could be written up quickly, such as a broken headlight, instead of more time-consuming work, such as pulling over a drunk driver. The quotas were later rescinded.

Some states ban ticket quotas. In Maryland, law enforcement agencies cannot enact formal or informal quotas or use such numbers as the sole standard in evaluating officer’s performance for promotions or demotions. Virginia does not have such a law.

 Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, said police departments face a careful balancing act when it comes to setting goals for officers’ performance.

“While quotas are never the right thing to do, there has to be a level of expectation for officers,” Wexler said.

After reviewing the memo, Wexler said he thought the Fairfax police supervisors had struck the right balance with a comprehensive set of standards by which to measure officers that went beyond just ticket production.

 

Hey Sharon, now you can't say you didn't know.Teacher: False molestation charge has ‘been a nightmare’


Jury took 47 minutes to acquit him, but he still doesn’t have his job back — and owes $125K


By Seamus McGraw
 


It took a jury in northern Virginia just 47 minutes to decide that popular gym teacher and soccer coach Sean Lanigan had been falsely accused of sexually assaulting a student, a 12-year-old girl angered over the fact that he had chastised her. But even now, nearly a year after he was acquitted of all charges, there’s no way of knowing how long it will take for Lanigan to piece his life back together. 

“Emotionally it’s been a nightmare,” Lanigan told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira Tuesday, as his wife Karin clung to his arm. In the months since his ordeal, he’s been bounced from school to school in the Fairfax County district that had been his home for most of his professional life, he said. His legal bills have reached $125,000 and are still rising, and the school district has refused to pay them.
 
It’s taking its toll, he said. “I’m in therapy, just trying to deal with the stress,” he told Vieira.
 
A surprise visit 

Lanigan’s long nightmare began in January 2010, when the 43-year-old father of three was summoned to the office at the Centre Ridge Elementary School where he had been a well-respected teacher for more than a decade. Sitting there were two police detectives.
 
At first, the detectives told him nothing, he said. “For about 25 minutes it was small chitchat about who I am, what I do, how I interact with students,” Lanigan told Vieira. “I really didn’t understand why the detectives were talking to me.”
 
Finally, “the lead detective said, ‘You have no idea why you’re here, do you?’ ” Lanigan recalled. “And I was like, ‘No I really don’t.’ ”
 
And then they laid it all out. A sixth-grader — a girl Lanigan had recently chastised for bullying, warning her that she might lose her coveted position as a monitor aboard a school bus — had accused him of an unspeakable crime. She claimed that Lanigan had molested her, grabbing her buttocks and her breast, and that he had dragged her to a closet, forced her down on some mats and lain on top of her.
 
“I was stunned. I mean, absolutely shocked,” Lanigan told Vieira Tuesday. “I love all my students and I was just absolutely stunned that a student would actually make these accusations.”
 
Nine days later, Lanigan was arrested on charges of aggravated sexual battery and abduction, charges that could have sent him to prison for 40 years. It fell to his wife to comfort her husband and to try to explain it all to their three children.
 
“It was devastating,” Karin Lanigan told Vieira. “I ran home from work and ... tried to discuss [it] with our children to prepare them for what was going to be happening. It was unbelievable. I couldn’t fathom the emotional and mental distress.”
 
A short time later, Lanigan was booked and thrown into the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center for four days. Television news crews descended on the school and on Lanigan’s neighborhood. His reputation was shattered.
 
Related: Female teacher acquitted of child molestation 

In the months that followed, prosecutors tried to persuade Lanigan to plead guilty to a lesser charge. But Lanigan said he was adamant: He was innocent and would prove it.
 
“I was excited for a trial,” he told NBC News. “The truth was finally going to come out, and I was going to get my life back.” 

Not guilty 

Last May, Lanigan’s case finally came to trial. His accuser, whose name is being withheld due to her age, admitted under cross-examination that she “hated” Lanigan, and that he had angered her, not just because he had chastised her for bullying, but because he had refused to play her favorite music during gym class. She also acknowledged that she had described her allegations against Lanigan as “a joke” on her Facebook page. She had told friends, “Mr. Lanigan is a jerk,’ and vowed, “I’m going to make him pay.”
 
That was enough to convince the jury that the case against Lanigan was built on sand. 

“It was an easy decision,” juror Asman al-Ghafari told the Washington Post. “I just hope Mr. Lanigan can get his life back.”
 
But that has proven to be easier said than done, Lanigan said.
 
The “world was off my shoulders that day when the jury came back,” he said. “I thought I’d be back in school the next day.”
 
But while Lanigan was allowed to resume his coaching duties for the local soccer leagues, his job with the school district remains in limbo. It took the school district three months to decide that it would not allow Lanigan to return to Centre Ridge, and since then, it has posted him at two different schools on a part-time basis, teaching only five out of every 10 days, although he receives a full-time salary.
 
“I never understood why I wasn’t able to come back,” he told Vieira. “I petitioned the principal to come back just for graduation, just to see the kids, say hello. They denied that request.”
 
For now, Lanigan says he still does not know what the future may hold and is focused on dealing with crushing legal fees — $125,000 and still mounting — and the uncertainty over his job prospects.
But he declined to say whether he plans to sue the school board or his accuser’s family. “Right now, I’m just trying to get my job secured for the fall and trying to secure as much money as we can,” he said.
But if anything positive has come out of the ordeal, it is that he has become closer to his loved ones because of it. “Overall it’s made us stronger as a family. We really bonded together to get through this tough ordeal.”


Here you go Sharon, pretend you didn't see this either

WHICH IDIOT FAIRFAX COUNTY COP REPLIED TO THIS?
 
 
Can you video / record the Fairfax County Police

Posted by: concernedcitizen ()

Date: January 08, 2013 11:30AM


I have heard conflicting information on this. Some say it is protected under the Constitution, others say it is a violation of the Officers rights. Does anyone know what the law is in the Commonwealth? The way I understand this is as long as you do not interfere with the officers doing their job you can record all you want.

Couple of different scenarios if you want more detail to address:

I get pulled over by a FCP officer for a traffic stop. Can I video record the exchange between the officer and myself? Do I need to let him know I am recording the exchange?

I witness a police stop and want to video the event can I video?


I see a Sobriety check point and want to video, can I?




Re: Can you video / record the Fairfax County Police

Posted by: Johnny Law ()

Date: January 08, 2013 12:16PM


The Supreme Court has upheld the fact that based on the Patriot Act it is against the law to video tape Police Officers or other first responders doing their job, due to matters of National Security. You will be asked to stop and told to turn over the tape. If you are using an iphone or similar device, your iphone will be confiscated until deletion of video in question is confirmed. (This usually involves the Police Department's IT division disabling or erasing everything on your device's hard drive, including contacts, photos, apps, etc.)




Re: Can you video / record the Fairfax County Police

Posted by: Defendah Of Da Constitution


Not sure if troll, or cop trying to pull a fast one.
Taking photographs and video in a public space is a constitutional right. LEO's cannot confiscate cameras, cellphones, etc. without a search warrant. And they are not allowed, under any circumstances to delete anything from someone else property, even if legally confiscated. Hope this helps.



HERE’S THE THREAT


Re: Can you video / record the Fairfax County Police

Posted by: Get a clue! ()

Date: January 08, 2013 01:00PM


Firstly, you being busted for DUI is not of national security. Secondly, you may think that you are recording a "rodney king" moment, but that video could also be used against you. "holy crap i'm getting pulled over after 20 beers" Get it?!

Hey Sharon, pretend you don't see this either