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 Monday morning and began deleting apps off of a male agent’s personal cell phone 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.