Aurora Police Department

Week of Aug. 10, 2026: Officer ‘Incapacitated’ on Highway After Injecting Seized Narcotics and a Recently Terminated Sergeant Left Meth in his Equipment Locker

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Blue Surveillance

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Week of Aug. 10, 2026: Officer ‘Incapacitated’ on Highway After Injecting Seized Narcotics and a Recently Terminated Sergeant Left Meth in his Equipment Locker
Former Aurora Police Officer Michael Gallagher. Image courtesy of Michael Gallagher public Facebook page. Photo illustration by Andrew Fraieli.
Welcome to our weekly sum-up. Every Monday we send out a summary of the last week’s officers that have landed on Colorado’s Peace Officer Standards and Training public database of law enforcement misconduct and actions. These actions from POST are not necessarily only those that have happened in the last week, but those that have been added, and consist of any other context we could find. Additionally are officers with otherwise obvious misconduct from around the same time.

This week we have a slew of documents showing criminal charges, 100 mph chases ending in a crash, ingested and left behind narcotics and "disputes" with significant others.

John Granillo (CO-139222)

  • Subject of a criminal charge as an officer with Colorado Springs Police Department as of June 8.
  • Charged with first degree official misconduct and cybercrime through unauthorized access stemming from actions in September of last year where, according to a probable cause affidavit, Granillo repeatedly accessed a case file “in excess of authorized access” on the vandalism of a co-officer’s car that said they only went on one date.
  • Previously reported on here.
  • Resigned while under investigation on Aug. 1.

Sources:

    • POST Database
    • Court records
    • Affidavit
    • Colorado Springs Police Department
Image courtesy of Weld County Sheriff's Office. Photo illustration by Andrew Fraieli

Darrien Ahrendsen (CO-037-810)

  • Resigned in lieu of termination for cause as a deputy with Weld County Sheriff's Office on July 20.
  • According to a summary of an internal affairs investigation, between May 4 and June 23, Ahrendsen was “involved in disputes with his significant other in which police response occurred,” and during those investigations, Ahrendsen “failed to conduct himself in accordance with the standards outlined in the Weld County Sheriff’s Office Standards of Conduct policy.”
  • Weld County did not respond to an Aug. 11 CORA request before publishing.

Sources:

    • POST Database
    • Weld County Sheriff’s Office

Daniel Battenhouse (CO-009-380)

  • Terminated for cause as an officer with the Colorado Department of Corrections Parole on July 21.
  • Department of Corrections did not respond to an Aug. 11 records request before publishing.

Sources:

    • POST Database

Jacob Paterson (CO-254-390)

  • Resigned in lieu of termination for cause as an officer with Aurora Police Department
  • APD did not respond to an Aug. 11 records request for related documents before publishing.

Sources:

    • POST Database

Joseph Holloway (CO-124184)

  • Resigned in lieu of termination for cause as a commander with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office on May 19
  • Jeffco SO did not respond to an Aug. 11 records request for relevant documents before publishing.

Sources:

    • POST Database
Image courtesy of Michael Gallagher public Facebook page. Photo illustration by Andrew Fraieli

Michael Gallagher (CO-034-181)

  • Issued a credibility report as an officer with Aurora Police Department on Aug. 5
  • Resigned in lieu of termination after investigation into on-duty misconduct.
  • According to a public statement by Aurora PD, an investigation sustained multiple policy violations including substance abuse, tampering with evidence and knowingly making untruthful statements during a criminal or internal investigation, or while testifying under oath.
  • The statement continues that Gallagher “took narcotics that had been collected as evidence during a traffic stop while on duty and later ingested them while driving home from his shift, causing him to become incapacitated in his vehicle on a highway in Commerce City.” The department has referred the matter to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office for criminal charges
  • Aurora Police Department did not respond to an Aug. 11 records request for relevant documents before publishing.
  • Previous charge of child abuse through negligence without injury from May 2005. Gallagher pleaded not guilty and the charge was dismissed by Arapahoe County District Attorney several months later.
  • Hired by Aurora Police in October 2022

Sources:

Image courtesy of Commerce City Police Department. Photo illustration by Andrew Fraieli

Matthew Neely (CO-112346)

  • Subject of a criminal charge as an officer with Aurora Police Department on Aug. 5
  • Indicted by the 18th Judicial District grand jury with one count of Second-Degree Murder and one count of Manslaughter for fatally shooting a Black man during a traffic stop in August 2025

Sources:

Officer updates:

Records that must come directly from a law enforcement agency are not required to be released within three business days, as it is with CORA requests to municipalities. Sometimes an officer is added to the database later in the week, and there isn’t time for records requests to come before the newsletter has to be sent out. Sometimes the records we get back are resumes or job applications without much more information, but sometimes they are documents that do lend more important details. Whenever any of these updates come in, we’ll put them here.

Image courtesy of Federal Heights Police Department. Photo illustration by Andrew Fraieli

Chad Gallegos (CO-127487)

  • Terminated for cause as a sergeant with Federal Heights Police Department on July 22
  • Updates: complaints, internal affairs reports, termination letter
    • Terminated for repeated inconsistencies on his time-sheet for hours worked — five within a week — with discrepancies up to 51 minutes from his actual worked time.
    • Internal complaint states that a “small baggie containing 0.41 grams of methamphetamine was located” in his equipment locker along with a license plate and several handicap placards. The summary of the complaint states that it is unknown when these items were seized, but they were never booked in at the police department and that he would have violated six internal policies due to it.
    • Another complaint states that Gallegos responded to assist another officer by driving at 61 mph in a 35 mph zone, with the summary calling his behavior “negligent.” Only a month later, another complaint states Gallegos drove 53 mph in a 35 mph zone while holding his cell phone in his hand and “appearing to not be observing potential traffic ahead.”
  • Previously reported on here.
Image courtesy of Larimer County Sheriff's Office. Photo illustration by Andrew Fraieli

Gannon Brown (CO-0071-6980)

  • Terminated for cause as a deputy with the Larimer County Sheriff's Office on June 25
  • Internal affairs investigation found policy violations for making statements that “would discredit the officer,” making a comment to a co-worker that he sends “racists memes” to his friends, for knowingly leaving his firearm unsecured in the men’s locker room, and copying video from his body camera to his personal cell phone and sharing the video with peers
  • Other investigations:
    • Twice in four months used a “defensive tactic restraint” while working in the jail that was not agency approved, one involving “placing his arm around the inmate’s neck.”
    • Failed to properly report an inmate’s allegation of being sexually assaulted in the jail.
    • Attempted a traffic stop on a car speeding up to 110 mph, matching the car’s speed, and both crashing into a “large stone decorative tower” in the median.

Sources:

    • POST Database
    • Termination letter
    • Internal affairs reports

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