Porter asked what happened to drivers who refused consent. "He'd act like refusal proved something," Gallagher said. "Sometimes he'd tell them a dog was coming. Sometimes he said the vehicle had to be searched for officer safety. Sometimes he just opened the door and started looking." His attorney watched carefully as Gallagher added that he had personally assisted in searches he later understood had no lawful basis.
"Why?" Porter asked. The answer did not come quickly. Gallagher looked at a crack in the varnish of the conference table and said that Hollister had convinced him the sheriff approved every seizure, that dissent would end his assignment, and that a bad reference could make him unemployable in every neighboring department. He paused, then admitted that fear explained his behavior without excusing it.
The investigators reviewed the Tahoe footage with him. When the recording reached the moment Byron refused consent, Gallagher stared at his own younger face on the screen. He heard himself ask whether the search was an inventory or probable-cause search, and he heard Hollister brush the question aside. Then he watched himself open the center console and surrender the envelope.
"That was the moment," Gallagher said. "I knew we didn't have a reason. I could have stopped and said I wouldn't search." He pressed his palms together hard enough to whiten his knuckles. "Instead I looked for the money. I wanted the stop to be over, and I made a bad thing worse because I was afraid of the man I worked for."
Porter asked about the false report. Gallagher admitted Hollister had dictated descriptions of nervous behavior and inconsistent answers, and that he had entered those descriptions even though the recording supported neither one. His lawyer interrupted to clarify the circumstances before permitting him to continue. Gallagher then identified several earlier reports he believed contained similar invented language, giving investigators a starting point for examining a much wider problem.
During a break, Porter stepped into the hallway and found Gallagher's fiancée sitting on a bench with a paperback book she was not reading. Megan rose when the captain approached, worry immediately visible on her face. Porter could not discuss the interview, but she told Megan that the conversation was continuing and that the deputy would have a chance to speak with her when it ended. Megan sat down again and pressed the unopened book against her chest.
The interview lasted more than two hours. Gallagher described laughter after seizures, complaints dismissed by supervisors, and occasions when cash was counted outside the normal evidence room. He did not claim to know exactly where missing money had gone. He did remember that Hollister sometimes carried envelopes in a personal bag before the official log had been completed, and he identified dates that accountants could compare with bank deposits and inventory records.
Porter did not thank him as though he had done something heroic. She told him the information was important, that he might be interviewed again, and that his own conduct remained subject to review. Gallagher nodded, looking almost relieved by the absence of easy forgiveness. For the first time since joining the unit, he had told the truth without waiting for Hollister to approve the words.