Fairfax Police Chief Sued by Captain For Defamation

The head of the major crimes division of the Fairfax County police department has taken the highly unusual step of filing suit against the county police chief.

Fairfax County Police Chief David Rohrer retaliated against a female police captain who disagreed with how Rohrer handled an unrelated sexual harassment investigation, according to allegations in a civil lawsuit filed against Rohrer Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Fairfax County Police Department Captain Denise Hopson, accuses Rohrer of, among other things, using emails written by an anonymous accuser to defame Hopson on the department's intranet, BLUENet. The anonymous author of the emails is also accused of defamation.

A meeting Rohrer called, and subsequent emails and a related posting on BLUENet from Rohrer (attached to this article), focused on Hopson’s 2010 design and execution of a new procedure for selecting detectives for the police department’s Major Crimes Division. Hopson commands the 83 lieutenants and detectives in FCPD's Major Crimes Division.

Hopson is seeking a court order forcing Rohrer to identify her anonymous email accuser, as well as at least $1,000 in damages from Rohrer. She is seeking $1 million from the anonymous accuser, who accused Hopson of favoritism and of coaching one job candidate. 

Victor Glasberg, Hopson's attorney, said that little is known about the identity of the emails author. When asked whether he thought the writer had a vendetta against Hopson and her husband, a 2nd lieutenant in the police department, Glasberg said, "Does the sun rise in the east?"

"She is very sorry to be in the position," said Glasberg, who declined to comment further about the case.

A Fairfax County Police Department spokesperson declined to comment on pending litigation, saying only that Rohrer will likely be represented by County Attorney Karen Gibbons.

 Internal Investigation

In response to the January 6, 2011 anonymous email sent to Rohrer, FCPD's Internal Affairs division began an investigation into the MCD selection process. The writer or writers identified themselves as "a group of Fairfax County police officers who are outraged about the most recent process used to select future detectives for the Major Crimes Division."

However, the lawsuit alleges that Rohrer jumped the gun on March 1 when he reportedly told several top FCPD officers in a meeting that Captain Hopson had mishandled the selections. He also announced that he would invalidate the search's results and remove Hopson from her command position.

This swift decision was "stunningly out of character," Hopson alleges, because Rohrer is characterized by his deliberate management style. Less than a week after that meeting, Rohrer sent an email to several high-ranking FCPD employees saying the selection process was mishandled, and he later posted on BLUENet information attempting to discredit some rumors about the MCD selection process. He criticized the "overall administration" of the process, but declined to go into specifics, pending the results of the Internal Affairs investigation.

Rohrer's comments about the still-pending investigation tainted the Internal Affairs process, according to Hopson's complaint. They also brought more attention to Hopson.

Hopson alleges Rohrer may hold a grudge against her for voicing opposition to Rohrer’s handling of an earlier, unrelated matter—a sexual harassment complaint that Hopson was not directly involved in.

Shortly after the high-level FCPD meeting, Major Shawn Barrett, the commander of FCPD's Criminal Investigations Bureau, called Hopson to warn her that she was being unfairly "railroaded," according to the complaint. Hopson says that Barrett advised her to hire a lawyer.

A request for comment from Barrett was referred to FCPD's public information office.

First Email

This was not the first email from the anonymous author named in the complaint, according to Hopson's complaint. In the fall of 2010, a writer presumed by Hopson to be the author of the second email wrote that her husband, FCPD 2nd Lieutenant Mark Hopson, showed favoritism in choosing a new domestic violence detective for a police station. 2nd Lieutenant Hopson was also accused of blackmailing his commander, who allegedly was engaged in improper activities. 

The author of the first email identified themselves as an FCPD officer, according to the complaint, but refused to meet with investigators. An Internal Affairs inquiry absolved 2nd Lieutenant Hopson of wrongdoing, according to the complaint. Although Hopson asked that the department investigate the writer's identity, Rohrer refused, according to the complaint.

The anonymous writer later accused the Hopsons in the January 2011 of coaching the same domestic violence detective in the MCD selection process.