Third Sacramento-area suspect, a Rocklin man, is charged in U.S. Capitol siege

A Rocklin man accused of trying to steal a flag from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is the third Sacramento-area resident facing federal charges from the melee that killed five people.

Tommy Frederick Allan, 52, is charged in federal court in Washington, D.C., with three misdemeanors that could net him up to a year in custody: entering and remaining in a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and theft of government property.

Allan made his initial appearance in Sacramento federal court Friday following his arrest, and was released pending the outcome of his case.

Allan, who is described in public records as a former real estate salesman, is accused of trying to remove a flag from Pelosi’s office during the incident, but was stopped from removing it by someone, a law enforcement source said Friday.

Court records outlining the details of the case remained sealed late Friday.

Allan is the third Sacramento-area individual charged so far over events Jan. 6, which led to a delay in the Electoral College proceedings for President Joe Biden as well as the impeachment of then-President Donald Trump

On Tuesday, Valerie Elaine Ehrke, an Arbuckle home designer, made her initial court appearance in Sacramento on misdemeanor counts of entering a restricted building without lawful authority, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and demonstrating in the Capitol.

The FBI says it was tipped anonymously that Ehrke had posted video on her Facebook page about events at the U.S. Capitol.

“A check of the public Facebook page belonging to Ehrke with the display name ‘Valerie Elaine Ehrke’ showed a video posted on January 6, 2021, at 2:09 p.m.,” an affidavit from FBI special Agent Michael B. Miller says. “The video showed a group of people entering the U.S. Capitol building with a caption reading, ‘We made it inside, right before they shoved us all out. I took off when I felt pepper spray in my throat! Lol.’”

When FBI agents visited her last week to discuss the matter, she acknowledged that she and a friend attended a rally in Washington that day to hear then-President Trump make his false claims about President Biden stealing the election from him.

“She heard President Trump tell the crowd to go to the U.S. Capitol, and he would go with them,” the FBI affidavit says. “Ehrke instead went back to her hotel room, turned on the television, and saw a news story about how people were going into the U.S. Capitol building.

“Ehrke decided she wanted to be part of the crowd, and she walked to the U.S. Capitol. Ehrke stated that when she arrived at the U.S. Capitol building, she joined a group entering through a set of double doors and proceeded about fifteen (15) feet into the building.

“The crowd then started to push backward going out the doors through which they had entered. An unknown man grabbed her and pushed her outside.”

Ehrke is not in custody, although she has been ordered to stay away from Washington, D.C., except for court appearances.

The same day she made her court appearance, FBI agents arrested Jorge Aaron Riley, 41, a GOP activist.

Riley is charged with obstructing an official proceeding, illegally entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct at the Capitol for allegedly entering Pelosi’s office.

Like many of the dozens of cases that have been filed against individuals nationwide since Jan. 6, much of the evidence cited in court documents comes from suspects’ own social media posts.

“From January 6 through at least January 8, 2021, Riley posted over 150 messages, photographs and videos on his public Facebook account, detailing his actions in Washington, D.C., on January 6,” an FBI “statement of facts” says. “In one message on the morning of January 6, Riley posted, in part, ‘I’m here to see what my President called me to DC for. Hello from Sacramento!!!’”

At one point, Riley posted this message: “Hey We’re storming the Capitol…. What are you doing?”

He also appeared in a video interview posted on Reddit.com describing breaking into the building.

“We pushed our way to Nancy Pelosi’s office … and then we were sitting in there yelling ‘f--- you, Nancy Pelosi,” court papers quote him as saying. “At this point, Riley flashes both of his middle fingers to the screen as if to reenact what he had done while yelling in the Capitol.”

Riley is being held in the Sacramento County Main Jail without bail.