Denver wasn't the only city in Colorado that saw racial justice protests and clashes. There was also a lot going on south of Denver in the much smaller city of Colorado Springs. In the summer of twenty twenty, a nonprofit organization in Colorado Springs called the Chinook Center has opened their new office in a low rent strip mall near the airport. The founders are hoping to make it a gathering point for left wing activists and organizations across the area.
Not long after it opens, a young white woman named Chelsea shows up offering to volunteer. She had like bright pink hair. She dressed in a way that was sort of noticeable. This is Samantha Christiansen, who co founded the Chinook Center. Samantha is guarded with her language, a little politically correct even. I mean, there was nothing wrong with the way that she dressed, but it was noticeable, right, and for provoking certain types of I don't know, I
didn't want to say that. I'll take that part out. Chelsea dressed in a way that was noticeable, Samantha says. What she won't say is what I'll say, Chelsea dressed in a way that was sexually provocative miniskirts, tall boots, fishnet stockings, a lot of skin on display. She implied over the course of like getting to know her or whatever, that she was a sex worker to me, and I know other people she told other people she was. That's John Christiansen, Samantha's husband and one of the other co
founders of the Chinook Center. But yes, that was sort of her story. She had hinted at that it was like sex work, but never like outright came and said it. So I guess we all just assumed. And this is Autumn Carter Wallace, another Colorado Springs activist. I think somebody else had told me that, and I just was like, oh, okay, that makes sense, Like I never questioned it, which is very weird too, because I normally questioned everything. And that's
the one time I didn't. Just about everyone in the Colorado Springs activist community knew Chelsea, and most everyone thought she's a sex worker. But Chelsea isn't a sex worker. Chelsea isn't even her real name. And even though she doesn't drive a hearse, she does just like Mickey Windecker, take orders from the FBI. I'm Trevor Aaronson from Western Sound and I Heeart podcasts. This is Alphabet Boys Episode eight,
the Springs. So we're gonna leave Denver and take a break from the story of Mickey Windecker for just one episode. It might seem like a tangent, but trust me, it's not. The story of what happened seventy miles south in Colorado Springs ends up having big consequences for Mickey. The actual Colorado Springs investigation was only loosely connected to what Mickey was doing, but it reveals that what the FBI was
up to in Denver wasn't isolated. It was part of a larger strategy, an FBI investigative technique that likely played out in cities across the United States in the summer of twenty twenty. The lead up to the racial justice demonstrations in Colorado Springs were similar to what happened in Denver, where a young black man, Elijah McClain, was killed during an encounter with the police. There were protests, but things cooled down a bit, and then George Floyd was murdered
in Minnesota. The same pattern initial outrage over a killing, which then cooled and flared again with national protests happened in the Springs. In August twenty nineteen, a man called nine one one reporting that he'd been robbed at gunpoint by two young black men. Call it a spring to nine one one location of emergency. So ill was walking on the street and some men just confronting me with the gun, and they pawed me and tried to taking
all belongings. The nine one one caller then gave a description of the perpetrators, and local police officers stopped two young black men near where they left robbery occurred. The encounter was recorded by one of the officer's body cameras. So we got to report to two people similar descriptions, possibly having a gun, all right, So don't reach for your waist. We're gonna just second make sure that you
don't have a weapon, all right. Just as another police officer was coming behind the two men, one of them ran. The cops chased after him. Hands up, heads up, hands up, here's your heads up. Here's your heads up. The officer fired his gun multiple times and the young man was shot in the back. In the bodycam video, blood can be seen soaking through the left side the injured man's shirt. There's also blood spilling on the street, a lot of blood. The man died later at the hospital. His name was
Devon Bailey and he was just nineteen years old. Protesters went into the streets after the Colorado Springs Police Department released the bodycam footage. The shooting of Devon Bailey made national news. Newly released bodycam video from Colorado Springs and nineteen year old shot and killed by police. At one point, the video shows his hands in the air running away he's been shot. But a few months later, in November twenty nineteen, a grand jury declined to bring criminal charges
against the officers involved in Devon's killing. The El Paso County District Attorney called the shooting horrible tragedy, but said that the grand jury's decision is just. Then, George Floyd is killed by a cop in Minneapolis. In Denver, Colorados, Rings and cities across the country erupt in anger and activism. According to FBI internal reports, Mickey Windecker had provided information to federal agents about a racial justice activist in Colorado Springs.
That information appears to have been used to launch a separate investigation there. And this is when a woman with long pink hair named Chelsea enters the Colorado Springs activist scene. She signs up to join the Democratic Socialists of America, the same political group Mickey allied with in Denver. Chelsea also contacts John Christiansen, one of the Chinooks Center's founders and volunteers, to help around the office. We exchanged messages.
She's like, Oh, I want to I could do some administrative work for you guys, you know, And I was like, that's great, because that's like the most overwhelming thing. You know. It's like uploading email addresses and things like this. You know, it's a pain in the neck with John and other activist at the Chinook Center. Don't realize at the time is Chelsea isn't really Chelsea. Her real name is April Rogers and she's a young detective with the Colorado Springs
Police Department. More after the break, Mickey in Denver and Chelsea or April Rodgers in Colorado Springs have the same mandate from the FBI infiltrate racial justice activists and try
to set them up in crimes. While Mickey is working directly with the FBI and getting cash payments in return, Chelsea is part of something called the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between local police and the FBI, and in Colorado Springs, the FBI and its partners in the local police come to the conclusion without any discernible evidence, that the city's activist community is potentially dangerous and should be
the target of a long intrusive investigation. Colorado Springs sought share of demonstrations during the summer of twenty twenty, but it wasn't among the cities whose racial justice protests you'd hear about on the national news like Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, and Denver. The Springs is small, and it's very conservative, home to air force and army bases and a number of evangelical megachurches. It's also a popular place for retired
military officers. As a result, the city's voter base is consistently conservative, and the left wing activist community, well ambitious, is pretty small by comparison, But that left wing activist community hit just the right buttons in Colorado Springs. On August third, twenty twenty, the one year anniversary of Devon Bailey's death, dozens of activists gathered with signs in bullhorns in front of the House of Alan van Land, the
Colorado Springs police officer who shot von Bailey in the back. Okay, committed to homicide of barely accost other people of color in this city. The demonstrators blocked the road through the neighborhood and soon things got tense, with threats escalating to a potential gun battle. One of the demonstrators, named Charles Johnson, got into an altercation with a man who was opposing the protest. That woman jumps up, Okay, just like how
you do, Guss right. Videos from the protest outside the Colorado Springs police officers home made the rounds on social media, with right wing commentators using the incident to allege that antifa activists were becoming more dangerous. Michelle Malcolin, a far right commentator and conspiracy theorist, tweeted, it's not just Seattle, in Portland, in Austin, in twin City, it's freaking Colorado Springs.
She later added, nowhere is safe. Nearly a year passes, and the same people who had organized the protest outside the cops house all the actives from the Chinook Center. They start putting together a march for housing rights. They plant for July thirty first, twenty twenty one, the same day the city has planned an expensive one hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebration. That isn't a coincidence, it's intentional, a bit of a dick move. Yeah, but the demonstrators aren't
trying to be polite. So the actors from the Chinook Center March. They're wearing red shirts that read housing is a Human Right and caring signs that read rent is theft and in Spanish, housing for All. Among the marchers is the committed young activists with pink hair and provocative clothing, whom everyone knows as Chelsea. Here's Samantha Christiansen, one of the founders of the Chinook Center again, and then the
day of the housing march. I mean, I really hadn't seen her in a long She wasn't someone I really thought of that often, right, So I saw her and she's very recognizable in her appearance. With Samantha and the other marchers don't realize is that the Colorado Springs Police Department, working with the FBI, is planning to arrest a bunch of them today. Oh boys, we sit, we wait, we get paid. Nearby, sitting in a police cruiser is local
cop Scott Alamo. Alamo has his body camera on and he's talking to other officers as the marchers are coming up the street. Well, they think we're going to arrest twenty people, Dude, Obviously you're underestimating how awesome we are. As the demonstrators are passing by Scott Alamo, the local cop sees John Christiansen, Samantha's husband and another one of the march's organizers. Alamo calls him professor because John teaches sociology at a local college. Christians Who is the worker. Yeah.
Alamo pulls out what appears to be an intelligence report, and on every page are pictures of Christiansen and a dozen or so other marchers. It's like a rogues gallery, but these aren't mugshots. They're photos from social media, from Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. This document is likely the product of a new FBI program called Social Media Exploitation, developed during the
summer of twenty twenty. Under this program, the FBI partners with local law enforcement agencies to mind social media data to build files on people without probable cause for the search. As Scott Alamo is flipping through the pages of photos, he jokes about how violent the arrests are going to get to see boot to the face. Boot to the face, Yeah, that pretty much does happen. About six cops surround a black man with a shaved head and tackle him to the ground. His name is Sean Walls, and he's one
of the primary organizers of Colorado Spring's activist community. A few minutes later, the cops target another black man among the demonstrators. He's Charles Johnson, one of the men who got into the altercation earlier outside the Colorado Springs cops House. Four cops forced Charles to the ground, violently pulling his arms behind his back. Get your hand out depending As more cops are running in toward the people being arrested.
The officers charged towards a demonstrator on her bicycle and I see what I thought was a bunch of cops dogpiled on the entire crowd, and I was like, holy shit, like they're coming for everybody. Then, like what the fuck? Like just just shell shocked, right. Jacqueline Amandada's Unsweta is a former newspaper journalist who at this time it's working as a Colorado based staffer for Democratic US Senator Michael Bennett.
And then I immediately turned around after that and see a riot cop like in full gear, sprinting towards us in like flight or fight response. And in my case, honestly, flight is not my default. And in doing that, I just threw my bike down. It was like, bitch, you coming for me, Like that's the honest truth. And I know you've seen the video. Jacqueline can be seen on a police body camera as the officer rushes toward the people being arrested. Thinking the cop is charging at her,
Jacqueline throws her bike down. The police officer sidesteps the bike, it never touches him, and runs toward the pile of officers arresting the activists. And I was like, oh my god, dude, they just reacted, Like imagine if it had hit a cop, they would have had me on a felony. About a half dozen activists are arrested that day, in charge with crimes were related to their roles in the demonstration outside
the Colorado Springs Cops house. Jacqueline isn't among those arrested, but the cops aren't going to let the bicycle throwing incident go unpunished. Daniel Sumei, a Colorado Springs detective who is part of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, decides he's going to figure out the identity of the woman who threw down the bike. Sumi is just a local cop, but he makes a big deal of his assignment. His
business card suggests he's a federal agent FBI logo and all. Anyway, because Jacqueline was wearing sunglasses and a face mask, it wasn't clear from the police bodycam video who she was, so Sumei goes on social media and searches the friends lists of people who were at the demonstration. He finds Jacqueline's profiles and pictures of Jacqueline wearing the same bicycle, helmet and shoes that can be seen on the woman
in the bodycam video. Sumi has a suspect, and so to find the bike and other evidence they need to prosecute her. Sumi in the Colorado Springs police get a warrant to search Jacqueline's home. So they were like at least six officers in multiple vehicles, and I was like, are you fucking kidding me? Like I am not el chapel, Like this is ridiculous. In my journalism career. I've read
a ton of search warrant applications and evidence reports. Detective Sumi's are among the most bizarre I've ever read, and definitely the creepiest. First the bizarre part, Sumi, in a search warrant application notes that the demonstrators carried red flags. He then writes, and I'm not joking here, that he went on the internet, found some random website about red flags and writes, quote, the red flag is significant in that it is a radical political symbol and designates the
march as revolutionary and radical in nature. Sumi in black and white letters on a page. It's describing how the FBI is investigating ideology, something FBI Director Christopher Ray has told Congress doesn't happen. He's also employing a depth of research that probably wouldn't earn a passing grade in a high school class. Okay, And now the creepy part. Sumi, for some reason, includes in a search warrant application a full page photo of Jackline in a bikini. Sometimes you've
got a laugh right to keep from crying. And we had to laugh. It just had like how fucking creepy that was. And it's like this will be fun when we get to disclose to Colorado Springs taxpayers that their money is going to police greenshotting my bikini picks. Wow. Following the search and after a police took Jaqueline Spike and her electronic devices into evidence, local prosecutors charged her with attempted aggravated assault on a police officer, a second
degree felony. But local police working with the FBI aren't done in Colorado Springs. They still have an undercover embedded inside the activist group that's up to the break in the Springs, the pink haired woman everyone knows as Chelsea starts digging in. She started friending of a bunch of different people on Facebook who were at the housing march. This is John Christiansen. He was among those arrested at
the housing march. Like in retrospect, that should have been a red flag, but you know, it's just one of those things. People kind of come and go. Chelsea starts inviting activists over to her apartment. Always men, remember, Chelsea dresses provocatively, and most of the activists are under the impression that she's a sex worker. I walk up these sketchy steps, open up this apartment and there's two guys sitting there with her. This is one of the activists
Chelsea invites over. He agreed to be interviewed and recorded as long as they referred to him by his nickname art Yam. Anyway, I need to tell you for contact that art Yam loves guns. Now, I'm a gun nun when it comes to like history and mechanical stuff like this is like my passion since I was a kid. And he started a local chapter of the Socialist Full Association kind of like a left wing version of the
NRA minus the money in corruption. Nothing as the ASTRA he does is anything besides legal, and that's not me just doing a disclaimer. Like I think our next last event was we went camping, like you know, it's nothing crazy. So when art Young gets to Chelsea's apartment, it's weird. There are these two guys with Chelsea, and Chelsea's there and she's like, hey, how you doing. These are my friends. You know, this is my half brother. She pointed to this guy who's like forty five. She looked at me
like twenties to twenty five. Right points this guy that's forty five, says, this is my half brother, and I'm like, no, it's not. But I'm like sure, and she's like, oh, going to go in the kitchen. We have beer and pizza. I'm like, cool. I go in there. There's like twenty fucking pizzas there, like an absurd amount of pizzas. I may be over exaggerating, but enough that I was like, who the fuck you feeding? Like, I know, I'm kind
of a chunky guy. There's a lot of pizza there, and like thirty rack of like cores in the fridge and some Mike's hard Everything about the situation made no fucking sense to me. Chelsea, with her friend and supposed half brother sitting nearby, tells art Yum that she needs his help to get a gun. She's like, hey, I want to get this, and I'm like, cool, Yeah, that's great.
I can go and source it for one of my friends and yeah, we can just go down to a gun shop and you can fill out a background check and good bye it. She was like, Oh, okay, that's what a conversation ended. With the pistol. It's clear to Artyam that Chelsea is suggesting that he finds an illegal gun for her, something off the books from the black market. And I'm like, yeah, I'll source you a gun, no problem.
I guarantee you I find I could find somebody who has one for sale, but we're not going to selt you illegally. Like no. Artyam leaves a little later, thinking the evening was bizarre and half wondering whether Chelsea's friends are undercover cops, and still wondering who's going to eat all those pizzas. Then, not long after, Chelsea invites another activist over. Just as before, Chelsea has two people with her. I met up with her and Omar. This is Gabriel Pulsic.
These guys with Chelsea, Mike and Omar. They tell Gabriel that they're truckers. Mike was missing his left leg from the knee down. Omar was kind of a Middle Eastern looking guy with a big beard. Both had tattoos. Both are very buff. Unlike art Yam, who quickly shuts down any discussion of a legal activity, Gabriel is intrigued by these guys. They ask Gabriel if he wants to buy any weapons. He said that he had grenades, t and
t ak forty sevens like fully automatic weapons. Gabriel says he'd be interested in seeing the weapons, so they agree to meet up again, and Gabriel talks specifics types of guns, dates deliver, how they'd be transported, but he never commits
to any purchase. He's kind of using them, leading them on Mike and Omar, who is very generous, buying me cigars, drinks, food, whatever I wanted, and so there were a few times where they were obviously like pumping drinks in me or trying to, you know, be like, yeah, do you want another double shot? About sixteen years Scotch. At one meeting, Mike and Omar show Gabriel a fully automatic AK forty seven. I never saw any like grenades, routine to or any
of that other shit they're talking about. Gabriel eventually tells Mike that he's not interested in buying anything, and then he ghosts them. Mike then tries to keep the relationship going and it was like hey, bro, hope you're okay, blah blah blah. And I didn't respond in that text because I at this point I was like highly suspicious. And that's about when the activists in Colorado Springs discover that Chelsea isn't Chelsea. Her cover is blown by a
fellow cop in the Colorado Springs Police Department. I just threw my bike down. It was like, bitch, you coming for me. As a result of her criminal charge for supposedly attempting to assault a cop with her bicycle, goal, Jacqueline Amandata Unsweta request to review the evidence in her case, including police recordings from the day of the housing march, and via Jacqueline, the activists get to see the footage. Among the evidence is the bodycam video of officer Scott Alamo.
We sit, wait, we get paid. He's the one who is slipping through the pages of social media photos, the photos of the people the cops were planning to arrest around this time. In the recording, Alamo let something slip. He starts talking about the police officers who are secretly among the protesters. He says there are two undercovers and four plane closed officers. He's looking down on his phone
at photos of the undercover cops. Alamo thinks one of the pictures highlights his undercover colleagues physical attributes picture April with her giant boobs. Alamo's referring to April Rodgers, the woman the activists knew as Chelsea and unlike the activists who think the undercover cop is a sex worker and are careful enough to use objectifying language to describe her, Alamo goes straight to locker room talk with his giant
boobs comment. And so we started immediately looking for April Rodgers and started looking through photos of people like we didn't know, this is John christ Jansen again from the Chinook Center, you know, And it was like, you know, there was a process of the elimination, trying to figure out like, okay, this this person April Rodgers, and then eventually we were able to like triangulate that April Rodgers
was Chelsea. Once the information got around that Chelsea isn't Chelsea and that Chelsea is really a cop, the undercover April Rodgers disappears and for a time nothing more happens. Then, in the spring of twenty twenty two, I start communicating with some of the activists in Colorado Springs, and it turns out, seemingly by coincidence, the FBI takes a renewed
interest in the Colorado Springs activist community. The FBI starts knocking on doors, calling up people who had gotten a no Chelsea the sex worker or if Al Rodgers, the undercover cop, Hey, good morning. This message is for Autumn Carter Wallace. This message was left for Autumn Carter Wallace, one of the activists. This is Special Agent Henderson from the FBI office in Colorado Springs. We came down to
chat with you if you're available. I think that it would be great to sit down with you and talk about some things that we are concerned about as it relates to something's happening in the community. The FBI appears to be interested in Gabriel Pulsic. This is Autumn who called back the FBI after receiving that voicemail. They asked about Gabe and if I knew anything about I don't even know who gave is. They were like, well, we have pictures and videos of you near him at a protest.
A protest was like a thousand people. I'm standing near one guy. You think I know him, well, you guys are both connected through That doesn't mean I know him. I don't know a lot of the people. Federal agents also come to see Art Yam, the activist April Rodgers approached about buying a legal gun. He agrees to meet with them at the local FBI office on the condition that he's allowed to record their conversation, so soul kind of a interest statements that way, they know if you're
aware that there's a recorder on the desk. Ye, I'm Brandy Kempbell Withdrew Rosen and the detective Love at the FBI Colorado Springs our office Thursday at eleven o five. In this meeting, the FBI agents confirm art yam suspicions that those two guys with April were in fact FBI agents. You felt there was a gun running conspiracy we're trying to throw at you, which those war in fact undercovers. However, they basically weren't do a meeting with Gabe to sell
them hand grenades. Figured that was time why I got my name got mixed into the moss. The FBI agents tell Artyum that they're investigating Gabriel since he had several discussions with the undercover agents about weapons, but as of this recording, Gabriel has not been arrested or charged with a crime. He denies any wrongdoing or illegal behavior. Hey, Trevor, can you hear me? Coming back from a recent trip to England. Gabriel is stopped at the Denver Airport, he
calls me. Following the encounter. When I was leaving, I met the two FBI agents who have been investigating me for a year. Okay, they basically recounts me, you know why they were looking into me, you know, because I was you know, I inquired about acquiring those weapons, and they said that, you know, they have obviously recordings of all the conversations I had with the UCS, which obviously, you know, they made it clear that I wasn't under
us or that I wasn't being detained. The FBI agents also tell Gabriel in this conversation that they aren't just investigating him, They're investigating the entire Chinook Center, in anyone involved with the political organization. An investigation solely focused on political activity should be confined to FBI history books. But
it's happening right now. It's June twenty twenty two, and I'm back in Colorado Springs at the local state courthouse to attend a hearing in the criminal case of Charles Johnson, the black activist who is dogpiled by cops and arrested at the housing March. He's been charged with attempt at robbery menacing and obstructing a roadway, all for his role during the demonstration in front of the police officer's house on August third, twenty money in Colorado Springs. Charles Johnson's
lawyer is named Alison Blackwell. She believes the charges against her client are politically motivated, so during a hearing, she calls April Rodgers as a witness over the objections of prosecutors who do not want the undercover cop to testify. For the hearing, a lawyer representing the US Department of Justice is sitting at the prosecution's table. When you were marching in the housing march, were you doing that for the Colorado Springs Police Department? I was under the authority
of the FBI. Okay, how many other FBI agents were in that march? Are respectfully declined to answer. Does the Colorado Springs Police Department so that you're working for that PI? Yes, So I want to talk about going back to the SECT Center. Did you feel guilty about that? I respectfully declined to the answer. April is wearing a black dress with a black face mask to protect her undercover identity. She has long, dark brown hair, but it looks like a wig. A good one, but a wig all the same.
On request will on the witness stand, April pulls down her face mask, but only to her chin. Attorney Alison Blackwell asks April question after question, and nearly every time April answers, I respectfully decline to answer. She keeps looking over at the lawyer from the Justice Department. It's a truly bizarre scene, one of the strangest I've ever witnessed in a courtroom. This is a state courthouse, and in this case, the United States government is not a party.
And yet a Justice Department lawyer is instructing a local cop not to answer questions about a criminal case she helped investigate. Did you think that Mike Planet was a terrorist threat? At any point I respectfully declined to answer. I would you say now I've been told to respond or respectfully declined to answer. Someone else who declines to answer about any of this is the FBI officials in Colorado and Washington d C refused to respond to a
list of questions about the investigation in Colorado Springs. And in Denver, there's our old friend Mickey, and Mickey's about to face some trouble. Some activists from the Springs are about to post information online alleging that the man behind the wheel of the Silver Hearse is a secret informant,
and Mickey will respond with his own accusations. So there's a group or an individual it's claiming that they are Antifa Colorado Springs and in fact that that I believe that they are actually not Antifa Colorado Springs because I believe they are actually a cop. I for one, am not amused or pleased about the fuckery that's going on. That's in the next episode. This is Trojan Hearst Season one of Alphabet Boys. Alphabet Boys is a production of
Western Sound and iHeart Podcasts. The show is reported, written and hosted by me Trevor Aaronson. For more information about the series or to drop us a tip, head to our website Alphabet Boys dot xyz. You can contact me on Twitter or Instagram at Trevor Aaronson. We believe this story is important and could result in changes to FBI oversight and public policy. But to have an impact, people need to hear the story, so we need your help. First,
tell your friends about the show. Personal recommendations are the best recommendations. Second, spread the word on social media. At alphabet boys dot xyz, you'll find FBI undercover recordings and secret documents. You can share stuff the government never wanted public. Third help us ride the algorithms by leaving a rating or review on your favorite podcast app that helps other people find us, and thanks for listening.