Fairfax police commission report won’t mean much without real transparency & accountability in Geer case

Does the editorial board of The Washington Post read the paper or its own editorials? After seeing the Post endorsement last week of Sharon Bulova for another term as chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors I have to wonder if any of them even have a subscription to the Post.

Don’t get me wrong, the Post made the right choice. I happen to like Sharon and admire her many accomplishments. Also, it’s not like there’s a viable alternative candidate. The problem I have is the Post, in support of Bulova, ignores her terrible performance in connection with the August 2013 shooting death of John Geer by a Fairfax County police officer.

In the endorsement, they actually praise Sharon Bulova’s handling of the Geer case. Did they not read any of Tom Jackman’s articles chronicling the county’s ongoing failure to ensure transparency and accountability? Did the editorial board forget it called this ugly two-year long episode a “coverup“?

Previous columns on John Geer case

How does the editorial board fail to recognize that the coverup occurred because Sharon Bulova and the Board of Supervisors allowed it to happen? Supervisor Cathy Hudgins even admitted in January the board “owns this” problem.

Yes, Sharon Bulova deserves great credit for creating the Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission (subject of a separate editorial that also fails to understand what really has been going on). As a member of the commission, appointed by Sharon, I have a great deal of pride in the report that will be presented to the Board of Supervisors tomorrow (Tuesday). It was a rewarding experience and I thank Sharon for giving me that opportunity.

To her credit, Sharon was there for many of the meetings. She listened intently to public testimony and statements by commissioners. At times, the criticism was quite harsh. Sharon seemed to take it all in without a bit of defensiveness. That’s a great attribute to have in a leader. But if Sharon had all-along been doing the job we elected her to do, the commission would not have been necessary.

The Post editorial ignores that it took Sharon Bulova and the Board of Supervisors about 15-months to even begin to do the right thing in the John Geer case. Up until then, as the coverup continued, they kicked and screamed, doing their best to avoid proper oversight of the police department. They told anyone concerned about the secrecy surrounding the case that we should just leave the Fairfax County Police Department alone. Sharon Bulova and vice-chairman Penny Gross insisted the Board of Supervisors had to be hands-off during a police investigation.

But were they hands-off? Two-years and three-months after the shooting occurred we still don’t have a clear picture of their role in the coverup.

We do know that in the middle of it all, the Board of Supervisors approved money for a very high-priced lawyer to write letters to Senator Charles Grassley. Grassley was seeking information about the Geer shooting. In fact, it was the original Grassley letter that finally sparked my own activism in this case last December (in all, there were two letters that cost Fairfax County $225,000 – I need to get a writing assignment like that).

Instead of just telling the truth, Sharon Bulova and company wasted our money and harmed the County’s reputation in an effort to hide what happened to John Geer from Senator Grassley, the Geer family, prosecutors and us.

They were able to keep their deep, dark secrets until a judge intervened in January. Only then did we learn that the officers who witnessed John Geer’s death and the investigators assigned to the case all agreed this was a bad shooting by a Fairfax County police officer. That’s when we also discovered, through Jackman’s articles, that the reason for the conspiracy to withhold the truth centered on protecting the county from a likely lawsuit.

Even after settling with John Geer’s family for almost $3 million, the coverup continues. No one in charge, including Sharon Bulova, is interested in coming clean about what really happened.

When Sharon ordered the establishment of the Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission, the scope of the Commission was limited. It was made clear we were not charged with finding out who made these awful decisions that have cost Fairfax County so dearly.

To this day, we really don’t know what Sharon Bulova, Penny Gross and the rest of the Board of Supervisors knew about the John Geer case and when they knew it. We don’t know exactly when Bulova and company were informed this was a bad shooting. We don’t know what role they had in agreeing to a coverup that appears to have been supervised at the highest levels of the Fairfax County government.

The Washington Post editorial board seems to be okay that there’s been no real accountability for the decisions made in the Geer case. These decisions continue to greatly damage the reputation of Fairfax County and its police department. All along, the same people remain in charge.

There’s also no mention in the Post endorsement that the supervisors have been active in trying to hold onto these secrets.  At last word, they were still claiming attorney-client privilege to prevent us from seeing documents about the handling of the Geer investigation.

The commission report that will be delivered Tuesday urges honesty, openness and transparency by the Fairfax County Police Department. It calls for a change of culture. The old culture derives from a philosophy long held at the top levels of the police department and the Fairfax County government that what you don’t know won’t hurt me.

To really change that culture, Sharon Bulova and the Board of Supervisors have reached the moment when they must set a strong example. Their message should be, “It’s no longer business as usual in Fairfax County.”

This means finally opening the files and shining a light on who really called the shots in the Geer coverup and how these decisions were made. It also means finally demanding accountability of the government officials who worked very hard to keep the truth a secret.

Until that happens, Sharon Bulova does not really deserve the praise of The Washington Post or anyone else for her handling of the John Geer case. Turning the old philosophy around, Sharon needs to recognize what we, the citizens, don’t know, hurts us — hurts them — and hurts the image of Fairfax County.