Summary: The Virginia Police Misconduct Case

Adam Torres had already served nearly ten months in confinement prior to receiving his final sentence, therefore he only had two more months of his prison term remaining after the court had made its decision (Jackman 2016). This perceived injustice sent ripples through the Northern Virginia community. In fact Don Geer, the father of the victim, stated that, “Nothing about this [case] has been done in a timely manner. It’s been a long time for everything to take place” (WTOP Staff, 2016). He later added that he did not personally feel as though justice had been served. This comment was made in reference to the widely perceived lenient sentence Torres received for the murder of Don’s son. Fairfax County initially offered a $2.95 million settlement to Geer’s two daughters before Torres’s internal affairs files went public (Jackman, 2016). In terms of Virginia police misconduct cases, this settlement is one of the largest offers ever made.

The starting point for determining which crimes were available to select from for this paper began on George Mason University’s Blackboard website. Each criminal case found within the Professor’s Course Material folder was read through carefully and objectively. John Geer’s murder drew interest from the researcher purely based on the locality of the murder, which …show more content…
The researcher accessed multiple news articles and videos using Google.com, however, only reputable sources were evaluated. Subsequently, the databases contained on the library.gmu.edu website were also accessed and inspected for substantial materials. The most common method of searching these databases was for the researcher to input specific keywords that pertain to the case of John Geer. The researcher entered the following terms most frequently into databases like LexisNexis Academic: “John Geer”, “Adam Torres”, and “Fairfax County