Charles and Pat Geiger are still waiting to hear from Cleveland nine months after police arrested them after they were misidentified.Charles and Patricia Geiger's ordeal started when eight Cleveland police officers showed up at the their lakefront home at 12:30 a.m. March 2, accusing Charles Geiger of injuring an off-duty police sergeant directing traffic outside a downtown garage.
The Plain Dealer catches up with local stories published in 2011 in a year-end series of "Whatever happened to . . . ?" articles running through Jan. 3. The weekly edition of the feature, which appears on Mondays and updates stories from the previous year and beyond, will resume Jan. 9.
Today, we answer this question:
Whatever happened to Charles and Patricia Geiger, the Lakewood couple charged with the hit and run of a Cleveland police officer even though video surveillance footage showed they weren't there?
"Not a lot -- there hasn't been an outcome per se," said Charles Geiger, who was arrested with Patricia.
Mayor Frank Jackson called him about a month after the March 2 incident and "said that they regret the unfortunate events of that evening and that he was ordering the police chief to begin an internal-affairs investigation," Geiger said. "I took him at his word that they would do such an investigation and present us a copy of the findings.
"We were told the investigation moved to the chief's office two or three weeks ago, and that's what we're waiting for."
The couple's ordeal started when eight Cleveland police officers showed up at the their lakefront home at 12:30 a.m., accusing Charles Geiger of injuring an off-duty police sergeant directing traffic outside a downtown garage.
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Charles told them he was with his 28-year-old daughter at the time at Melt Bar & Grilled restaurant in Lakewood, which is next door to his store, Geiger's Clothing & Sports on Detroit Avenue. His daughter produced a receipt as proof.
The officers dismissed it. They put Geiger, a former Lakewood school board member, in a spotlight on the front lawn, where the injured officer, Sgt. Arthur Gorsek, identified him from the back seat of a cruiser as the driver of the car that struck him.
Patricia Geiger -- who was identified as the passenger in the car -- told the officers she had been the driver of the couple's vehicle, with her husband not present, when she and friends attended a show that evening at PlayhouseSquare. And she said she used a different exit from the garage than the one where the officer was struck.
She was arrested on suspicion of obstructing justice. A male officer remained in the room with her as she changed out of her pajamas to be taken to the Justice Center, where the Geigers spent 20 hours behind bars.
Charles was charged in Cleveland Municipal Court with felonious assault, assault and failure to comply with a police officer's order. He posted $500 bail to be released.
The charges were dropped March 18, after their attorney provided police with the previously ignored restaurant receipt, a video of Charles Geiger in Melt and signed affidavits from restaurant staff and the women who were with Patricia Geiger that night.
The incident took another rude turn after Patricia was told she could retrieve her SUV from a Cleveland police impound lot downtown. When she found the car in the crowded lot, she discovered the driver's side window had been left open, and the front seat was blanketed in a deep snowdrift. Police also had left the key in the ignition, and the battery was drained.
The car was cleaned and repaired without charge to the couple -- thanks only, Charles Geiger said, to the "compassion and kindness" of the manager and staff of Airport Acura, who had read about their ordeal in the paper.
The Geigers received their first phone call from the city of Cleveland nearly a month after charges were dropped, when a police lieutenant told Charles Geiger he was investigating the "unfortunate events." A second call came soon afterward from Jackson, who promised an investigation.
Both the Geigers were interviewed as part of that investigation over the summer, Charles said -- "and up to that point, no one from the Police Department had asked us our side of the story."
Asked where matters stand now, Sgt. Sammy Morris, a police spokesman, said Tuesday, "The matter is still open. Once the process has concluded, the investigation can be obtained through public records."
Awaiting the outcome of the investigation, the Geigers have filed no action against the city.
The actual hit-and-run driver remains at large.