Fairfax County prosecutors are moving to throw out more than 400 criminal convictions based on the testimony or work of a former patrol officer who is accused of stealing drugs from the police property room, planting drugs on innocent people and stopping motorists without legal basis, court filings show. In a hearing Friday, a Fairfax judge said he was inclined to vacate felony drug and gun convictions against a former D.C. firefighter and order him released from prison next week after serving nearly two years because of the actions of former officer Jonathan A. Freitag.
Fairfax police said they began investigating Freitag after receiving a tip about him in July 2019. The police department took him off the streets. Freitag, now 25, resigned in May 2020 after the FBI had joined Fairfax County in a criminal investigation of him. But even after The Washington Post first reported the allegations against Freitag in June 2020, he was hired by the Brevard County Sheriffs Office in Florida in August 2020. The Fairfax human relations department reported to Brevard that the former officer had never been subject to disciplinary action and there are no disciplinary records in his file.
Freitag was fired by the Brevard County sheriff on April 1 after The Post inquired about his status there. Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey then sent a scathing two-page letter to interim Fairfax police chief David M. Rohrer accusing Fairfax of providing misleading representations to our legitimate efforts to investigate Freitag. Ivey said it was outrageous that an individual such as Mr. Freitag, with a history of alleged misconduct at the Fairfax County Police Department, had become a member of our agency and placed in a position that may have negatively impacted our citizens due to your agencys misrepresentations.
Fairfax Countys human relations department provided Freitag with a letter soon after his resignation which said, You resigned from the position in good standing, your employment was entirely favorable and you are eligible for re-hire, and Freitag in turn submitted that to Brevard County, documents released by Brevard show. Fairfax police said that letter led Brevard to query the human relations department instead of the police department. Brevard is now investigating the cases Freitag made during his seven months there, sheriffs office spokesman Tod Goodyear said.
Fairfax prosecutors said Freitag had been involved in 932 total cases during his three years as an officer, mostly traffic and misdemeanors, resulting in about 400 convictions. Seven were felonies, prosecution spokesman Ben Shnider said. Prosecutors have dismissed at least 21 cases which were pending, including a case where a man was charged with felony assault on Freitag, but the former D.C. firefighter Elon Wilson is the only defendant currently incarcerated. Wilsons case would be the first conviction to be vacated as a result of Freitags actions.
Freitag has not been charged with any crimes, but prosecutors said a criminal investigation of him is ongoing. In phone and text conversations, Freitag denied any wrongdoing. No direct evidence of any misdeeds by Freitag was presented in a court hearing Friday on Wilsons case, beyond the documents that the officer falsely claimed Wilson committed a traffic violation as a reason to stop him and search his car.
This is all news to me, Freitag said of the allegations laid out by Fairfax prosecutors. Freitag admitted to falsifying information in police records to police internal affairs investigators, and admitted to a third party to engaging in racial profiling in determining which motorists to stop, according to prosecutors.
I have parted ways with Fairfax, Freitag said. Clearly [Fairfax Commonwealths Attorney] Steve Descano has an agenda. I will continue to stick by my word of me doing nothing wrong.
What occurred in this case is a disgrace of monumental proportions, Descano wrote in a court brief, and a stain on the good work of many honest police officers and prosecutors. The conviction and sentence in this matter were unjustly obtained and if left uncorrected will undermine confidence in our system of justice.
After Fridays hearing, Descano said Wilson had a 5-month-old baby when he was arrested and had been a valued firefighter.
I just want to apologize to Elon Wilson and his family for what theyve endured, because of the failings of the criminal justice system, Descano said.
