Michelle Herczeg worked for the Dallas Police Department before joining the Secret Service
Kamala Harris’ Secret Service agent had ‘screws loose’ years before on-base fight: ex-colleague
The Secret Service officer assigned to Vice President Kamala Harris’ security detail who got into a brawl with her colleagues last week is described by a former co-worker from the Dallas Police Department as mentally unwell and having “screws loose,” The Post has learned.
Michelle Herczeg was temporarily removed from her duties last Wednesday after she assaulted a superior officer at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where she was waiting for Harris’ departure.
The Dallas PD colleague exclusively told The Post they’re gobsmacked that Herczeg was picked for the vice president’s detail as in their experience, she was not the type of person suited to law enforcement.“I wouldn’t have allowed this person to supervise my dog, much less the vice president … Somebody dropped the ball on this one,” the former colleague said.
Herczeg previously sued the city of Dallas in 2016 for $1 million, saying she “was targeted for being a female officer and treated less favorably” for reporting sexual harassment and other instances of wrongdoing by cops, according to a report by the Dallas Morning News.
She also joined the Air Force in 1999 and served for nearly a decade, earning multiple service awards and leaving as a staff sergeant.
“I would say this person and how she got in the military, how she got into the police department, how she got in the Secret Services, I don’t have a clue. I was at a loss for words when I heard she was an agent much less on a detail with somebody that high up,” the ex-colleague said.
Herczeg’s on-base outburst occurred after she reportedly started deleting cellphone apps from a male agent’s personal cell and eventually becoming increasingly irate.
She was said to be mumbling to herself, hiding behind curtains and throwing menstrual pads and other items at another agent, telling her colleagues they were “going to burn in hell and needed to listen to God,” according to RealClearPolitics.
When her supervisor dismissed her from the assignment, Herczeg shoved, tackled and punched him, the outlet reported.
Herczeg didn’t respond to The Post’s request for comment Monday. The Dallas Police Department referred the matter to the Secret Service.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: “The US Secret Service takes the health and safety of our employees very seriously. As this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to disclose any further details.”
He had previously said of the incident: “A US Secret Service special agent supporting the vice president’s departure from Joint Base Andrews began displaying behavior their colleagues found distressing. The agent was removed from their assignment while medical personnel were summoned.”
Herczeg’s apparent issues are deep-rooted, according to the former colleague.
The former Dallas officer who served alongside Herczeg said she first “became a little off” after a 2014 shooting incident in which she and another colleague, Jay Jankowski, were responding to an incident at the Grand Hotel Dallas.
At the time, Herczeg and Jakowski believed there was a stolen vehicle and went to investigate, according to the Dallas Observer.
When Herczeg tapped on the truck’s window, she noticed there was a man inside, Terence Michael Groessel, who had a gun pointed at Jankowski.
“The two officers immediately retreated toward their squad car and began firing their weapons at Groessel,” a police spokesman previously said. Groessel then stuck his arm out of the truck window, which police said appeared as if he was pointing a gun at Herczeg and Jakowski.
Just a few minutes later, Groessel shot and killed himself.
The distressing episode seemed to leave a mark on Herczeg, but it is unknown if she was officially diagnosed with any mental health issues.
“That was the impetus that kind of made people go ‘She ain’t right,'” the former colleague said.
When Herczeg later sued Dallas police, the lawsuit stated she was not allowed to return to a special crime reduction team after reporting an alleged assault and was barred from taking overtime shifts, causing “stress and mental anguish from loss in payment compensation.”
Herczeg’s former colleague said she was reassigned to a small unit at the Dallas Police Department and at the time other officers were warning “Watch your back, watch yourself” when working with her because she was so “litigious.”
“When she got up there [to the new unit], the feelings just changed. Nobody would talk, people were afraid to say anything around her,” the former colleague said, adding that they couldn’t wait for the “oddball” Herczeg to leave the force.
“Everybody, including myself, just knew she wasn’t right.”
Herczeg’s lawsuit against Dallas was dismissed by a Texas court, and her subsequent appeal and request for a new hearing were both denied.
Secret Service officer protecting Kamala Harris came to blows with other agents at Joint Base Andrews
A Secret Service agent tasked with protecting Vice President Kamala Harris brawled with several other agents on Monday morning, the agency confirmed.
The altercation took place around 9 a.m. near Joint Base Andrews on the outskirts of Washington, DC, prior to Harris’ arrival.
The agent in question, whose identity has not been revealed, was immediately “removed from their assignment,” the Secret Service told The Post.
“A US Secret Service special agent supporting the Vice President’s departure from Joint Base Andrews began displaying behavior their colleagues found distressing,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the US Secret Service, said to The Post.
“The US Secret Service takes the safety and health of our employees very seriously.”
Medical personnel were called to the scene, per Guglielmi. The agent had been at Joint Base Andrews to support Harris’ planned departure, but ultimately the scuffle did not delay her travel.
Guglielmi added that because it was a “medical matter,” the department would not “disclose any further details.”
Harris traveled to New York City, where she was scheduled to tape an interview on “The Drew Barrymore Show.”
The agent who instigated the fight was armed and grew aggressive with others, the Washington Examiner reported. A detail shift supervisor and special agent in charge attempted to cool them off, but then a fight broke out, according to the report.
That agent began acting erratically when she arrived at Joint Base Andrews, eventually getting on top of the special agent in charge of the vice president before punching him, RealClearPolitics reported.
Afterward, the unnamed agent was reportedly handcuffed and received medical attention.
Following the blow-up, some questioned the hiring process behind that agent, including any assessment of that individual’s background, according to RealClearPolitics.
There had also apparently been longstanding concerns about the agent in question prior to Monday’s incident, per the report.
Harris was notified about the situation, according to Guglielmi.
Secret Service officer who fought colleagues while assigned to Kamala Harris once sued Dallas for $1M, claiming gender bias
A Secret Service officer assigned to protect Vice President Kamala Harris who got into a brawl with her colleagues earlier this week previously filed a $1 million gender discrimination lawsuit against the city of Dallas while working as a police officer.
Michelle Herczeg was removed from her duties on Wednesday after displaying erratic behavior and assaulting a superior officer while awaiting Harris’ departure from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Monday.
In December 2016, Herczeg — then a senior corporal with the Dallas Police Department — filed her claim against the city, alleging that she “was targeted for being a female officer and treated less favorably,” according to a contemporary report by the Dallas Morning News.
Sources confirmed Herczeg’s identity and her role in the earlier lawsuit to The Post on Thursday.
According to RealClearPolitics, Herczeg arrived at Joint Base Andrews on Monday morning and began deleting apps from a male agent’s personal cellphone before becoming more irate.
The outlet reported that Herczeg began mumbling to herself, hiding behind curtains and throwing menstrual pads and other items at another agent, telling her colleagues they were “going to burn in hell and needed to listen to God.”
When the special agent in charge relieved her of the assignment, Herczeg shoved, tackled and punched him, according to RCP, quoting a source who said she “snapped entirely.”
In her 2016 lawsuit, Herczeg charged she was retaliated against for reporting sexual harassment and other wrongdoing by Dallas cops.
After Herczeg was allegedly assaulted by a male superior officer in May 2015, she claimed, “[i]ntimidation tactics were used as investigative tools to persuade Herczeg from seeking criminal relief against the officer who assaulted her,” according to the Morning News.
The lawsuit also alleged that Herczeg was not allowed to return to a special crime reduction team after reporting the alleged assault and was also refused overtime patrol shifts, causing “stress and mental anguish from loss in payment compensation.”
Herczeg further charged that DPD “tolerates unprofessional behavior such as fraternization and unprofessional male and female working relationships based on an atmosphere which finds the male officer in charge, regardless of rank or ability.”
A Texas court dismissed Herczeg’s suit and a court of appeals denied both her appeal in 2021 and a request for a rehearing the following year.
Herczeg did not respond Thursday to an inquiry from The Post
The Morning News reported that Herczeg was an Air Force veteran who joined the Dallas PD in September 2008.
Unfit Female Agent Responsible for Secret Service Ruckus
The agent who attacked a superior in the vice president’s security force has been identified as Michelle Herczeg, an Air Force veteran and former Dallas police officer who left the force in 2016 after accusing a superior of sexual malfeasance and subsequently saw her damages suit dropped in 2021. On Monday, she reportedly “snapped.”
RealClearPolitics has produced a comprehensive summary of Monday morning’s events:
Herczeg showed up at the terminal and began acting erratically, grabbing another senior agent’s personal phone and deleting applications on it, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The other agent, a shift leader, was able to recover his phone and then acted as if nothing had happened.
But Herczeg’s bizarre behavior didn’t stop. She then began mumbling to herself, hid behind curtains, and started throwing items, including menstrual pads, at an agent, telling him that he would need them later to save another agent and telling her peers that they were “going to burn in hell and needed to listen to God,” a source told RealClearPolitics.
Herczeg also screamed at the special agent in charge (SAIC), rattling off the names of female officers on the vice president’s detail and claiming they would show up and help her and allow her to continue working. At that point, other agents on the scene believed Herczeg was suffering from a mental lapse, and the superior officer, SAIC, approached her to tell her she was relieved from the assignment.
“That’s when she snapped entirely,” one source recounted.
Herczeg then chest-bumped and shoved her superior, then tackled him and punched him. The agents involved in restraining Herczeg were especially concerned because she still had her gun in the holster. They wrestled her to the ground, took the gun from her, cuffed her, and then removed her from the terminal.
How Herczeg came to be in the vice president’s employ after such an experience is an open question, as security for the president and those in his orbit are expected to have spotless backgrounds and years of experience. It’s fair to wonder whether the Secret Service’s signing on to the 30×30 initiative, a pledge to have women be 30 percent of all law enforcement by 2030, could have forced the qualification of Herczeg, given that her record was below the level expected of male officers.
The Left, for all its fearmongering about white supremacists and January 6 rioters lurking in ponds and mulberry bushes, does not take seriously just how dangerous the world is. Anyone who understands the number of unwell and hostile entities in the world and who has any status at all would think it best to surround himself with excellent protection, regardless of the color or genitalia of his security. But the president and vice president think signaling their virtue through staffing, however unqualified and distracted the component parts of their security might be, is the best course for their purposes.
Politics at the expense of personal safety is astonishingly foolish. As we’re stuck with Joe and Kamala until at least January 2025, the American public should insist on the president and his team protecting themselves — the upheaval of injury to either could very well be world-changing. May Monday’s relatively bloodless episode be a lesson, resulting in the reprioritization of merit over optics.
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