WEBVTT - 8. The Springs 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.080 Denver wasn't the only city in Colorado that saw racial 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.360 justice protests and clashes. There was also a lot going 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:09.480 on south of Denver in the much smaller city of 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:14.240 Colorado Springs. In the summer of twenty twenty, a nonprofit 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:18.080 organization in Colorado Springs called the Chinook Center has opened 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.520 their new office in a low rent strip mall near 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:23.360 the airport. The founders are hoping to make it a 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:28.240 gathering point for left wing activists and organizations across the area. 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:31.680 Not long after it opens, a young white woman named 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:35.920 Chelsea shows up offering to volunteer. She had like bright 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.680 pink hair. She dressed in a way that was sort 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:45.640 of noticeable. This is Samantha Christiansen, who co founded the 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.720 Chinook Center. Samantha is guarded with her language, a little 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.479 politically correct even. I mean, there was nothing wrong with 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:56.120 the way that she dressed, but it was noticeable, right, 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:58.640 and for provoking certain types of I don't know, I 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:00.440 didn't want to say that. I'll take that part out. 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.120 Chelsea dressed in a way that was noticeable, Samantha says. 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:08.280 What she won't say is what I'll say, Chelsea dressed 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:12.760 in a way that was sexually provocative miniskirts, tall boots, 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:17.360 fishnet stockings, a lot of skin on display. She implied 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:19.720 over the course of like getting to know her or whatever, 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:22.280 that she was a sex worker to me, and I 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.160 know other people she told other people she was. That's 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.480 John Christiansen, Samantha's husband and one of the other co 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:31.640 founders of the Chinook Center. But yes, that was sort 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:34.280 of her story. She had hinted at that it was 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:38.120 like sex work, but never like outright came and said it. 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:41.040 So I guess we all just assumed. And this is 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:45.279 Autumn Carter Wallace, another Colorado Springs activist. I think somebody 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:47.640 else had told me that, and I just was like, oh, okay, 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.520 that makes sense, Like I never questioned it, which is 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:53.080 very weird too, because I normally questioned everything. And that's 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.640 the one time I didn't. Just about everyone in the 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.880 Colorado Springs activist community knew Chelsea, and most everyone thought 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:04.760 she's a sex worker. But Chelsea isn't a sex worker. 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:11.320 Chelsea isn't even her real name. And even though she 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:15.680 doesn't drive a hearse, she does just like Mickey Windecker, 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:22.200 take orders from the FBI. I'm Trevor Aaronson from Western 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:46.600 Sound and I Heeart podcasts. This is Alphabet Boys Episode eight, 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:56.960 the Springs. So we're gonna leave Denver and take a 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.720 break from the story of Mickey Windecker for just one episode. 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.520 It might seem like a tangent, but trust me, it's not. 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:06.639 The story of what happened seventy miles south in Colorado 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:11.600 Springs ends up having big consequences for Mickey. The actual 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.360 Colorado Springs investigation was only loosely connected to what Mickey 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.959 was doing, but it reveals that what the FBI was 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:23.680 up to in Denver wasn't isolated. It was part of 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:28.640 a larger strategy, an FBI investigative technique that likely played 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:31.560 out in cities across the United States in the summer 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:35.120 of twenty twenty. The lead up to the racial justice 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.560 demonstrations in Colorado Springs were similar to what happened in Denver, 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.119 where a young black man, Elijah McClain, was killed during 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:45.800 an encounter with the police. There were protests, but things 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.640 cooled down a bit, and then George Floyd was murdered 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:54.720 in Minnesota. The same pattern initial outrage over a killing, 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:59.240 which then cooled and flared again with national protests happened 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:03.200 in the Springs. In August twenty nineteen, a man called 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:05.840 nine one one reporting that he'd been robbed at gunpoint 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.040 by two young black men. Call it a spring to 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:12.400 nine one one location of emergency. So ill was walking 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:14.800 on the street and some men just confronting me with 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:17.280 the gun, and they pawed me and tried to taking 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:20.400 all belongings. The nine one one caller then gave a 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:23.920 description of the perpetrators, and local police officers stopped two 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.240 young black men near where they left robbery occurred. The 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:30.160 encounter was recorded by one of the officer's body cameras. 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:33.440 So we got to report to two people similar descriptions, 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:36.000 possibly having a gun, all right, So don't reach for 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:37.800 your waist. We're gonna just second make sure that you 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.279 don't have a weapon, all right. Just as another police 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:42.960 officer was coming behind the two men, one of them ran. 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:47.240 The cops chased after him. Hands up, heads up, hands up, 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.200 here's your heads up. Here's your heads up. The officer 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:54.840 fired his gun multiple times and the young man was 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:58.560 shot in the back. In the bodycam video, blood can 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:00.960 be seen soaking through the left side the injured man's shirt. 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:04.719 There's also blood spilling on the street, a lot of blood. 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.920 The man died later at the hospital. His name was 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:13.680 Devon Bailey and he was just nineteen years old. Protesters 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:21.680 went into the streets after the Colorado Springs Police Department 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.039 released the bodycam footage. The shooting of Devon Bailey made 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:28.800 national news. Newly released bodycam video from Colorado Springs and 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:31.479 nineteen year old shot and killed by police. At one point, 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:34.440 the video shows his hands in the air running away 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.960 he's been shot. But a few months later, in November 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.400 twenty nineteen, a grand jury declined to bring criminal charges 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.400 against the officers involved in Devon's killing. The El Paso 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.560 County District Attorney called the shooting horrible tragedy, but said 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:51.360 that the grand jury's decision is just. Then, George Floyd 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.760 is killed by a cop in Minneapolis. In Denver, Colorados, 0:05:54.839 --> 0:06:01.599 Rings and cities across the country erupt in anger and activism. 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:05.640 According to FBI internal reports, Mickey Windecker had provided information 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:09.200 to federal agents about a racial justice activist in Colorado Springs. 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:12.640 That information appears to have been used to launch a 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:16.360 separate investigation there. And this is when a woman with 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:20.239 long pink hair named Chelsea enters the Colorado Springs activist scene. 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.839 She signs up to join the Democratic Socialists of America, 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.640 the same political group Mickey allied with in Denver. Chelsea 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:32.360 also contacts John Christiansen, one of the Chinooks Center's founders 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:36.120 and volunteers, to help around the office. We exchanged messages. 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:37.520 She's like, Oh, I want to I could do some 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:39.560 administrative work for you guys, you know, And I was like, 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:41.880 that's great, because that's like the most overwhelming thing. You know. 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:45.400 It's like uploading email addresses and things like this. You know, 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.760 it's a pain in the neck with John and other 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.520 activist at the Chinook Center. Don't realize at the time 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:58.280 is Chelsea isn't really Chelsea. Her real name is April 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:02.960 Rogers and she's a young detective with the Colorado Springs 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:16.400 Police Department. More after the break, Mickey in Denver and 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:20.760 Chelsea or April Rodgers in Colorado Springs have the same 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:25.240 mandate from the FBI infiltrate racial justice activists and try 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.400 to set them up in crimes. While Mickey is working 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.480 directly with the FBI and getting cash payments in return, 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:35.400 Chelsea is part of something called the Joint Terrorism Task Force, 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:40.040 a partnership between local police and the FBI, and in 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:43.600 Colorado Springs, the FBI and its partners in the local 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:48.640 police come to the conclusion without any discernible evidence, that 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:52.600 the city's activist community is potentially dangerous and should be 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:58.480 the target of a long intrusive investigation. Colorado Springs sought 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.400 share of demonstrations during the summer of twenty twenty, but 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.400 it wasn't among the cities whose racial justice protests you'd 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:08.760 hear about on the national news like Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:13.600 and Denver. The Springs is small, and it's very conservative, 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:16.720 home to air force and army bases and a number 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:21.000 of evangelical megachurches. It's also a popular place for retired 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.520 military officers. As a result, the city's voter base is 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.760 consistently conservative, and the left wing activist community, well ambitious, 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:33.240 is pretty small by comparison, But that left wing activist 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:36.360 community hit just the right buttons in Colorado Springs. On 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:40.040 August third, twenty twenty, the one year anniversary of Devon 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:49.440 Bailey's death, dozens of activists gathered with signs in bullhorns 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:51.960 in front of the House of Alan van Land, the 0:08:52.040 --> 0:09:07.160 Colorado Springs police officer who shot von Bailey in the back. Okay, 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:13.760 committed to homicide of barely accost other people of color 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:17.640 in this city. The demonstrators blocked the road through the 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:22.040 neighborhood and soon things got tense, with threats escalating to 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:26.400 a potential gun battle. One of the demonstrators, named Charles Johnson, 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.080 got into an altercation with a man who was opposing 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:38.920 the protest. That woman jumps up, Okay, just like how 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.839 you do, Guss right. Videos from the protest outside the 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:45.360 Colorado Springs police officers home made the rounds on social media, 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:48.959 with right wing commentators using the incident to allege that 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:53.559 antifa activists were becoming more dangerous. Michelle Malcolin, a far 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.960 right commentator and conspiracy theorist, tweeted, it's not just Seattle, 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:03.040 in Portland, in Austin, in twin City, it's freaking Colorado Springs. 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:09.480 She later added, nowhere is safe. Nearly a year passes, 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:11.720 and the same people who had organized the protest outside 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:14.560 the cops house all the actives from the Chinook Center. 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.000 They start putting together a march for housing rights. They 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.560 plant for July thirty first, twenty twenty one, the same 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:23.959 day the city has planned an expensive one hundred and 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:29.920 fiftieth anniversary celebration. That isn't a coincidence, it's intentional, a 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.160 bit of a dick move. Yeah, but the demonstrators aren't 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:38.640 trying to be polite. So the actors from the Chinook 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:42.320 Center March. They're wearing red shirts that read housing is 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.599 a Human Right and caring signs that read rent is 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:51.720 theft and in Spanish, housing for All. Among the marchers 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.000 is the committed young activists with pink hair and provocative clothing, 0:10:55.559 --> 0:11:00.760 whom everyone knows as Chelsea. Here's Samantha Christiansen, one of 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.400 the founders of the Chinook Center again, and then the 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.440 day of the housing march. I mean, I really hadn't 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:08.760 seen her in a long She wasn't someone I really 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.880 thought of that often, right, So I saw her and 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:16.600 she's very recognizable in her appearance. With Samantha and the 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:20.640 other marchers don't realize is that the Colorado Springs Police Department, 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:25.520 working with the FBI, is planning to arrest a bunch 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:32.880 of them today. Oh boys, we sit, we wait, we 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:38.200 get paid. Nearby, sitting in a police cruiser is local 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:42.040 cop Scott Alamo. Alamo has his body camera on and 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.680 he's talking to other officers as the marchers are coming 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.280 up the street. Well, they think we're going to arrest 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:54.319 twenty people, Dude, Obviously you're underestimating how awesome we are. 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:59.360 As the demonstrators are passing by Scott Alamo, the local 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:03.480 cop sees John Christiansen, Samantha's husband and another one of 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:08.120 the march's organizers. Alamo calls him professor because John teaches 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:15.760 sociology at a local college. Christians Who is the worker. Yeah. 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:18.240 Alamo pulls out what appears to be an intelligence report, 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:21.520 and on every page are pictures of Christiansen and a 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:24.920 dozen or so other marchers. It's like a rogues gallery, 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:30.959 but these aren't mugshots. They're photos from social media, from Facebook, Instagram, 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:34.400 and LinkedIn. This document is likely the product of a 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:38.959 new FBI program called Social Media Exploitation, developed during the 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:43.040 summer of twenty twenty. Under this program, the FBI partners 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.640 with local law enforcement agencies to mind social media data 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:50.079 to build files on people without probable cause for the search. 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:53.880 As Scott Alamo is flipping through the pages of photos, 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:56.160 he jokes about how violent the arrests are going to 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:08.000 get to see boot to the face. Boot to the face, Yeah, 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:21.680 that pretty much does happen. About six cops surround a 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.000 black man with a shaved head and tackle him to 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.440 the ground. His name is Sean Walls, and he's one 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:37.160 of the primary organizers of Colorado Spring's activist community. A 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:40.439 few minutes later, the cops target another black man among 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:44.520 the demonstrators. He's Charles Johnson, one of the men who 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:48.120 got into the altercation earlier outside the Colorado Springs cops House. 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:54.400 Four cops forced Charles to the ground, violently pulling his 0:13:54.480 --> 0:14:12.320 arms behind his back. Get your hand out depending As 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:14.600 more cops are running in toward the people being arrested. 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:18.280 The officers charged towards a demonstrator on her bicycle and 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.120 I see what I thought was a bunch of cops 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.360 dogpiled on the entire crowd, and I was like, holy shit, 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:26.560 like they're coming for everybody. Then, like what the fuck? 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:32.960 Like just just shell shocked, right. Jacqueline Amandada's Unsweta is 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:36.520 a former newspaper journalist who at this time it's working 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:40.360 as a Colorado based staffer for Democratic US Senator Michael Bennett. 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:43.640 And then I immediately turned around after that and see 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.360 a riot cop like in full gear, sprinting towards us 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:53.320 in like flight or fight response. And in my case, honestly, 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:57.880 flight is not my default. And in doing that, I 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.360 just threw my bike down. It was like, bitch, you 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:04.360 coming for me, Like that's the honest truth. And I 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:07.560 know you've seen the video. Jacqueline can be seen on 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.160 a police body camera as the officer rushes toward the 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:18.000 people being arrested. Thinking the cop is charging at her, 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:22.000 Jacqueline throws her bike down. The police officer sidesteps the bike, 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:24.920 it never touches him, and runs toward the pile of 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.120 officers arresting the activists. And I was like, oh my god, dude, 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:31.320 they just reacted, Like imagine if it had hit a cop, 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:36.160 they would have had me on a felony. About a 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:38.920 half dozen activists are arrested that day, in charge with 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.000 crimes were related to their roles in the demonstration outside 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:46.320 the Colorado Springs Cops house. Jacqueline isn't among those arrested, 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:49.360 but the cops aren't going to let the bicycle throwing 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:55.040 incident go unpunished. Daniel Sumei, a Colorado Springs detective who 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:57.720 is part of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, decides he's 0:15:57.720 --> 0:15:59.520 going to figure out the identity of the woman who 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:02.640 threw down the bike. Sumi is just a local cop, 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:05.440 but he makes a big deal of his assignment. His 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:10.200 business card suggests he's a federal agent FBI logo and all. Anyway, 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:13.560 because Jacqueline was wearing sunglasses and a face mask, it 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.320 wasn't clear from the police bodycam video who she was, 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:19.960 so Sumei goes on social media and searches the friends 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:23.880 lists of people who were at the demonstration. He finds 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:27.520 Jacqueline's profiles and pictures of Jacqueline wearing the same bicycle, 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:29.640 helmet and shoes that can be seen on the woman 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:34.240 in the bodycam video. Sumi has a suspect, and so 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:36.840 to find the bike and other evidence they need to 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.160 prosecute her. Sumi in the Colorado Springs police get a 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:44.160 warrant to search Jacqueline's home. So they were like at 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:48.360 least six officers in multiple vehicles, and I was like, 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:50.720 are you fucking kidding me? Like I am not el chapel, 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.720 Like this is ridiculous. In my journalism career. I've read 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.240 a ton of search warrant applications and evidence reports. Detective 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.240 Sumi's are among the most bizarre I've ever read, and 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:06.639 definitely the creepiest. First the bizarre part, Sumi, in a 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:10.440 search warrant application notes that the demonstrators carried red flags. 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:14.080 He then writes, and I'm not joking here, that he 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:16.840 went on the internet, found some random website about red 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:21.399 flags and writes, quote, the red flag is significant in 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.520 that it is a radical political symbol and designates the 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:30.320 march as revolutionary and radical in nature. Sumi in black 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:32.720 and white letters on a page. It's describing how the 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:37.320 FBI is investigating ideology, something FBI Director Christopher Ray has 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:41.720 told Congress doesn't happen. He's also employing a depth of 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.520 research that probably wouldn't earn a passing grade in a 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:49.479 high school class. Okay, And now the creepy part. Sumi, 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:53.040 for some reason, includes in a search warrant application a 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:57.680 full page photo of Jackline in a bikini. Sometimes you've 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:01.159 got a laugh right to keep from crying. And we 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:04.480 had to laugh. It just had like how fucking creepy 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:08.199 that was. And it's like this will be fun when 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:12.160 we get to disclose to Colorado Springs taxpayers that their 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:18.920 money is going to police greenshotting my bikini picks. Wow. 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.160 Following the search and after a police took Jaqueline Spike 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:27.440 and her electronic devices into evidence, local prosecutors charged her 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:31.600 with attempted aggravated assault on a police officer, a second 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:38.679 degree felony. But local police working with the FBI aren't 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:43.800 done in Colorado Springs. They still have an undercover embedded 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:59.040 inside the activist group that's up to the break in 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:03.800 the Springs, the pink haired woman everyone knows as Chelsea 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.920 starts digging in. She started friending of a bunch of 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:09.920 different people on Facebook who were at the housing march. 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:13.320 This is John Christiansen. He was among those arrested at 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.320 the housing march. Like in retrospect, that should have been 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:19.480 a red flag, but you know, it's just one of 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.200 those things. People kind of come and go. Chelsea starts 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:27.240 inviting activists over to her apartment. Always men, remember, Chelsea 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.280 dresses provocatively, and most of the activists are under the 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:34.000 impression that she's a sex worker. I walk up these 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:37.280 sketchy steps, open up this apartment and there's two guys 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:40.160 sitting there with her. This is one of the activists 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:43.359 Chelsea invites over. He agreed to be interviewed and recorded 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:45.280 as long as they referred to him by his nickname 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:49.080 art Yam. Anyway, I need to tell you for contact 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:52.920 that art Yam loves guns. Now, I'm a gun nun 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.280 when it comes to like history and mechanical stuff like 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.080 this is like my passion since I was a kid. 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:00.240 And he started a local chapter of the Socialist Full 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:02.960 Association kind of like a left wing version of the 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:07.120 NRA minus the money in corruption. Nothing as the ASTRA 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:09.760 he does is anything besides legal, and that's not me 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:11.560 just doing a disclaimer. Like I think our next last 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:15.240 event was we went camping, like you know, it's nothing crazy. 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:19.760 So when art Young gets to Chelsea's apartment, it's weird. 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:23.439 There are these two guys with Chelsea, and Chelsea's there 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:25.240 and she's like, hey, how you doing. These are my friends. 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:27.359 You know, this is my half brother. She pointed to 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.040 this guy who's like forty five. She looked at me 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.800 like twenties to twenty five. Right points this guy that's 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:36.439 forty five, says, this is my half brother, and I'm like, no, 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:38.200 it's not. But I'm like sure, and she's like, oh, 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:40.040 going to go in the kitchen. We have beer and pizza. 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:42.840 I'm like, cool. I go in there. There's like twenty 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:46.800 fucking pizzas there, like an absurd amount of pizzas. I 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:48.639 may be over exaggerating, but enough that I was like, 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:50.600 who the fuck you feeding? Like, I know, I'm kind 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.600 of a chunky guy. There's a lot of pizza there, 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:56.719 and like thirty rack of like cores in the fridge 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:59.679 and some Mike's hard Everything about the situation made no 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:03.840 fucking sense to me. Chelsea, with her friend and supposed 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.280 half brother sitting nearby, tells art Yum that she needs 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:09.440 his help to get a gun. She's like, hey, I 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.520 want to get this, and I'm like, cool, Yeah, that's great. 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:13.760 I can go and source it for one of my 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:15.480 friends and yeah, we can just go down to a 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:17.240 gun shop and you can fill out a background check 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:20.320 and good bye it. She was like, Oh, okay, that's 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:23.280 what a conversation ended. With the pistol. It's clear to 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:25.960 Artyam that Chelsea is suggesting that he finds an illegal 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.480 gun for her, something off the books from the black market. 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:31.720 And I'm like, yeah, I'll source you a gun, no problem. 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:33.359 I guarantee you I find I could find somebody who 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:35.400 has one for sale, but we're not going to selt 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:40.119 you illegally. Like no. Artyam leaves a little later, thinking 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:43.480 the evening was bizarre and half wondering whether Chelsea's friends 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:47.399 are undercover cops, and still wondering who's going to eat 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:53.320 all those pizzas. Then, not long after, Chelsea invites another 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:57.760 activist over. Just as before, Chelsea has two people with her. 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:03.000 I met up with her and Omar. This is Gabriel Pulsic. 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:07.720 These guys with Chelsea, Mike and Omar. They tell Gabriel 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:11.680 that they're truckers. Mike was missing his left leg from 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:15.240 the knee down. Omar was kind of a Middle Eastern 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:18.280 looking guy with a big beard. Both had tattoos. Both 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:22.280 are very buff. Unlike art Yam, who quickly shuts down 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:26.199 any discussion of a legal activity, Gabriel is intrigued by 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:29.080 these guys. They ask Gabriel if he wants to buy 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:32.399 any weapons. He said that he had grenades, t and 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:39.280 t ak forty sevens like fully automatic weapons. Gabriel says 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:41.800 he'd be interested in seeing the weapons, so they agree 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:45.959 to meet up again, and Gabriel talks specifics types of guns, 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:50.119 dates deliver, how they'd be transported, but he never commits 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:54.000 to any purchase. He's kind of using them, leading them 0:22:54.040 --> 0:23:00.359 on Mike and Omar, who is very generous, buying me cigars, drinks, food, 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:03.040 whatever I wanted, and so there were a few times 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:05.280 where they were obviously like pumping drinks in me or 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:07.840 trying to, you know, be like, yeah, do you want 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:12.040 another double shot? About sixteen years Scotch. At one meeting, 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:16.000 Mike and Omar show Gabriel a fully automatic AK forty seven. 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:19.080 I never saw any like grenades, routine to or any 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:22.040 of that other shit they're talking about. Gabriel eventually tells 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:25.480 Mike that he's not interested in buying anything, and then 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:28.840 he ghosts them. Mike then tries to keep the relationship 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:31.840 going and it was like hey, bro, hope you're okay, 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:33.760 blah blah blah. And I didn't respond in that text 0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:36.320 because I at this point I was like highly suspicious. 0:23:37.840 --> 0:23:40.800 And that's about when the activists in Colorado Springs discover 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:45.960 that Chelsea isn't Chelsea. Her cover is blown by a 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:51.720 fellow cop in the Colorado Springs Police Department. I just 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:54.200 threw my bike down. It was like, bitch, you coming 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:57.639 for me. As a result of her criminal charge for 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:00.240 supposedly attempting to assault a cop with her bicycle, goal, 0:24:00.880 --> 0:24:04.640 Jacqueline Amandata Unsweta request to review the evidence in her case, 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:07.840 including police recordings from the day of the housing march, 0:24:08.640 --> 0:24:12.160 and via Jacqueline, the activists get to see the footage. 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:16.639 Among the evidence is the bodycam video of officer Scott Alamo. 0:24:17.320 --> 0:24:21.520 We sit, wait, we get paid. He's the one who 0:24:21.560 --> 0:24:24.439 is slipping through the pages of social media photos, the 0:24:24.480 --> 0:24:26.720 photos of the people the cops were planning to arrest 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:31.960 around this time. In the recording, Alamo let something slip. 0:24:32.840 --> 0:24:35.720 He starts talking about the police officers who are secretly 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:39.280 among the protesters. He says there are two undercovers and 0:24:39.400 --> 0:24:42.879 four plane closed officers. He's looking down on his phone 0:24:43.440 --> 0:24:46.920 at photos of the undercover cops. Alamo thinks one of 0:24:46.960 --> 0:24:53.880 the pictures highlights his undercover colleagues physical attributes picture April 0:24:53.960 --> 0:25:01.919 with her giant boobs. Alamo's referring to April Rodgers, the 0:25:01.960 --> 0:25:05.800 woman the activists knew as Chelsea and unlike the activists 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:08.639 who think the undercover cop is a sex worker and 0:25:08.720 --> 0:25:11.480 are careful enough to use objectifying language to describe her, 0:25:12.400 --> 0:25:16.439 Alamo goes straight to locker room talk with his giant 0:25:16.440 --> 0:25:20.879 boobs comment. And so we started immediately looking for April 0:25:20.960 --> 0:25:23.800 Rodgers and started looking through photos of people like we 0:25:23.840 --> 0:25:27.159 didn't know, this is John christ Jansen again from the 0:25:27.200 --> 0:25:29.560 Chinook Center, you know, And it was like, you know, 0:25:29.640 --> 0:25:32.280 there was a process of the elimination, trying to figure 0:25:32.320 --> 0:25:34.920 out like, okay, this this person April Rodgers, and then 0:25:34.920 --> 0:25:40.680 eventually we were able to like triangulate that April Rodgers 0:25:41.240 --> 0:25:48.200 was Chelsea. Once the information got around that Chelsea isn't 0:25:48.280 --> 0:25:52.120 Chelsea and that Chelsea is really a cop, the undercover 0:25:52.480 --> 0:26:01.800 April Rodgers disappears and for a time nothing more happens. Then, 0:26:02.119 --> 0:26:05.240 in the spring of twenty twenty two, I start communicating 0:26:05.240 --> 0:26:08.800 with some of the activists in Colorado Springs, and it 0:26:08.840 --> 0:26:13.159 turns out, seemingly by coincidence, the FBI takes a renewed 0:26:13.200 --> 0:26:17.240 interest in the Colorado Springs activist community. The FBI starts 0:26:17.320 --> 0:26:20.080 knocking on doors, calling up people who had gotten a 0:26:20.119 --> 0:26:24.040 no Chelsea the sex worker or if Al Rodgers, the 0:26:24.080 --> 0:26:27.240 undercover cop, Hey, good morning. This message is for Autumn 0:26:27.320 --> 0:26:30.920 Carter Wallace. This message was left for Autumn Carter Wallace, 0:26:31.240 --> 0:26:34.200 one of the activists. This is Special Agent Henderson from 0:26:34.200 --> 0:26:36.879 the FBI office in Colorado Springs. We came down to 0:26:36.960 --> 0:26:39.800