Drunk driving, fraud, and an agency 'golden boy': Blaze Media's Steve Baker exposes apparent scandals in the US Capitol Police

Steve Baker, an investigative reporter with Blaze Media who was recently arrested in connection with his work as an independent journalist documenting the events of January 6, has an explosive new report that indicates that several current and former uniformed members of the United States Capitol Police — including a USCP assistant chief who recently testified in front of Congress — effectively failed upward, receiving prestigious promotions despite previous professional scandals that were ultimately hushed up.

'Ask them what they call it': Overtime fraud

The main focus of Baker's investigation involves an overtime pay scandal in the USCP Dignitary Protection Division that occurred nearly a decade and a half ago and reportedly lasted at least a year. The scandal had at least three known participants: Wendy Colmore, John Erickson, and Sean Gallagher.

In January 2010, former USCP Sergeant Rhoda Henderson, long since retired, became suspicious of some overtime hours submitted by Colmore, Erickson, and Gallagher. According to a July 2014 report from National Journal, DPD officers were limited in the overtime hours they could report because they could not earn more than $8,596 every two weeks.

To sidestep that rule and ensure that they received payment for all their OT hours, Colmore, Erickson, and Gallagher began "time shifting" by distributing hours onto other pay periods to keep themselves below the $8,596 threshold, Henderson claimed.

When Henderson first reported her suspicions in summer 2012, she said that her superiors brushed her off. However, she had collected a treasure trove of digital receipts that revealed the scam.

An intra-agency memorandum dated a year later indicated that "all three" eventually copped to the scandal. "All three claim that this was not a conspiracy," the memorandum said, according to Baker. "What was it then? Ask them what they call it when three people all agree to backfill overtime and not inform their chain of command."

Henderson recently told Baker that in perpetrating the scam, Colmore, Erickson, and Gallagher committed "felonies" that ought to at least have resulted in immediate termination. "Had this been me or any other officer (those not part of command staff) who would have committed this crime," she told National Journal in 2014, "we would have been fired. There's no doubt in my mind."

Jim Konczos, then chairman of the Capitol Police Labor Committee's executive board, agreed. "If these allegations are true, this is criminal in nature, not administrative by any means," Konczos said. "This conduct should result in termination, nothing less. We can't have supervisors stealing time and/or money. This conduct, besides being criminal, impairs the efficiency and reputation of the department."

'Defrauded the government': Lt. Wendy Colmore

When questioned in 2013, Gallagher, then a USCP captain and the supervisor of Colmore and Erickson, pointed the finger at Colmore, a lieutenant, as the architect of the scheme. A memorandum from that year shows that Colmore had previously contacted a superior officer and inquired about rules governing "time shifting." Despite receiving a response that such practices were not permitted, Colmore and her colleagues apparently began fudging their timesheets anyway.

In all, Colmore's role in the scheme "defrauded the government of $6,870," according to a USCP document viewed by Baker. Colmore also had a "sustained charge of conduct unbecoming" from a separate internal affairs investigation in 2000.

Even with those marks on her record, Colmore was never fired, though she was recommended for demotion to sergeant. She left the USCP in 2014 and joined the U.S. Senate sergeant at arms a year later, according to a LinkedIn profile believed to be hers.

'Passed out, extremely intoxicated': Deputy Chief John Erickson

As unsavory as some of Colmore's behavior has been, Erickson's past transgressions are even worse. Not only was he implicated in the overtime scheme and ordered to serve a 20-day suspension and pay back at least some of the defrauded money, but he was reportedly twice caught driving under the influence, once while on duty.

The first incident occurred in 1997 in San Antonio, Texas, when Erickson was working security detail for then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Shortly before 3:30 a.m. on June 28 that year, Erickson was discovered in "a government-rented convertible" parked along the side of a road with "his head on his chest, passed out, extremely intoxicated," a police report said. Officers described his speech as "slurred," his breath as smelling of "intoxicants," and his eyes as "bloodshot."

Erickson refused to take a breathalyzer, was arrested, and spent several hours in jail. He later received a warning from the USCP and a 10-day suspension without pay, according to USCP documents viewed by Baker.

Erickson apparently did not learn his lesson, however, as he was involved in an even more serious alcohol-related incident less than five years later. In January 2002, Erickson was off duty when he reportedly swerved and crashed his personal vehicle into a Maryland State Police cruiser parked along Route 50 just outside D.C. in New Carrollton, Maryland. A trooper was in the vehicle at the time and sustained "minor injuries" during the crash, the Washington Post reported at the time.

Following the crash, Erickson was suspended for 30 days without pay, charged with conduct unbecoming, and issued a "last chance agreement, in lieu of termination," USCP documents said.

These serious marks on his record seem to have have had no negative effect on his USCP career, though. In fact, he has continued to advance, prompting some to refer to him as "Teflon John." In the year following the overtime scandal, Erickson was promoted to captain, and a penalty assessment memorandum about the scandal called him "an outstanding employee."

Last October, Erickson was named a USCP deputy chief.

'The golden boy': Assistant Chief Sean Gallagher

Of the three USCP uniformed officers caught in the overtime scandal, Sean Gallagher should have suffered the worst penalties. At the time the scandal was uncovered, Gallagher was a captain, entrusted with signing off on timesheets such as those submitted by Colmore and Erickson. Yet on his timesheets, Gallagher forged the signature of his superior, Inspector Daniel Malloy, apparently choosing different-colored pens to conceal his misconduct.

This was not Gallagher's first foray into forgery at the USCP. He was also the subject of a prior internal affairs investigation in which he claimed "that his forgery of his supervisors [sic] signature never resulted in personal gain," USCP documents revealed, according to Baker.

Those words may have come back to haunt Gallagher, who is believed to have pocketed an extra $10,000 as a result of time-shifting. Documents in connection with that incident claimed he was motivated by the "significant personal gain" it would yield.

Gallagher was supposed to pay back all the money he stole from the department and be demoted to lieutenant, but whether those consequences were ever enforced is uncertain. One unnamed USCP source familiar with the matter told Baker that Gallagher remained a captain, served just a 10-day suspension, and was promoted to inspector in 2018.

Within the next three years, Gallagher received two more promotions. In 2019, he was named a USCP deputy chief before becoming an assistant chief in June 2021.

When asked why uniformed officers like Gallagher received such seemingly preferential treatment despite serious, possibly even criminal, missteps, former USCP Captain Eric Keenan, one of the only current or former USCP employees willing to go on the record with Baker, said that Gallagher ingratiated himself with powerful people in the department.

From "day one," Keenan told Baker, Gallagher was "the golden boy who could do no wrong."

A Praetorian Guard of sorts: USCP and political influence

As distastefully as some in federal law enforcement have behaved, the larger problem with these scandals at the USCP is that they seem to have put unscrupulous people into positions with significant power, Steve Baker claimed. Earlier this month, Assistant Chief Sean Gallagher even testified at a congressional hearing about pipe bombs placed near the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic National Committees hours before the protest on January 6.

"Those statements [about the pipe bombs] come from our trained bomb techs, highly trained, highly capable bomb techs," asserted Gallagher, a man who has been caught committing forgery on multiple occasions.

Baker believes that the likes of Gallagher, Deputy Chief John Erickson, and former Lt. Wendy Colmore represent a much deeper problem at the USCP. "The U.S. Capitol Police know 'where the bodies are buried' and who buried them," Baker claimed. "This gives them tremendous power — power even over the outcome of controversial or closely contested legislation."

USCP officers have seemingly wrested so much power away from elected officials that Baker compared them with the Praetorian Guard, a once-proud unit of officers entrusted with protecting Roman emperors that eventually devolved into an elitist group of gatekeepers who, in essence, controlled the empire.

Despite possible corruption in the upper echelon of the USCP and the Biden administration's apparent prosecution of him for exercising his constitutional rights as a member of the free press, Baker says he is not deterred. "Blaze Media’s investigation into Capitol Police corruption will continue," he stated.

Neither the USCP nor Wendy Colmore responded to Blaze News' request for comment.

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