‘These guys weren’t working’: 2 top cops in Bethany Beach, Delaware stole $150,000 in OT pay

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This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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In August 2023, finance officials at the small Delaware resort town of Bethany Beach uncovered startling corruption by the police chief and his top deputy.

Chief Michael Redmon, who was already on paid leave for a drunk driving arrest, had colluded with Captain Darin Cathell to steal town money by taking overtime pay for hundreds of hours they didn’t work.

The pair were only permitted to work overtime if no other officers on the 10-member force signed up for the shifts, according to minutes of a town Audit Committee meeting in February 2024.

But the town discovered Redmon never posted the availability of the OT hours, which let Redmon and Cathell “claim those hours for themselves,’’ meeting records show. The chief and the captain never worked the shifts.

Bethany informed federal and state law enforcement authorities, who launched a criminal investigation, and in January 2024, the town fired Redmon and Cathell. Redmon later took a first offender’s plea on the DUI charge.

While town officials thought the FBI-led criminal probe could take years, last month, federal prosecutors charged both Redmon and Cathell with felony wire fraud. And this month, the pair pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Wilmington.

Redmon, 58, and Cathell, 49, face up to 20 years behind bars at sentencing, set for August. A conviction for wire fraud doesn’t carry a mandatory minimum prison term.

Together, the two falsified records by submitting claims over a four-year period for at least 359 overtime shifts — totaling 1,560 hours — that they did not work. That cost Bethany Beach at least $150,000, according to court records.

Redmon stole $82,000, and Cathell took $68,000, court records show.

Redmon and Cathell have agreed to repay the money they stole from the town they were paid to protect, according to their federal plea agreements.

Not only did the two top cops steal federal and state grant money, but the Sussex County beach town that’s packed with tourists during the summer did not get the extra police protection the money was supposed to provide.

“It’s no different than if they had reached into the town [treasury] and walked away with the funds, plain and simple,’’ said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Wallace, who handled the case. “They stole from the grant funders, from the town, from the police department, from the taxpayers.”

The prosecution of Bethany’s chief and top deputy also sends a message that police officers will be punished for crimes, Wallace said.

“The law doesn’t care about race, class, religion, or in this case, the fact that the defendants are officers, and this case exemplifies that,’’ Wallace said. “The officers committed a crime that anybody else would be punished for and they’re being treated accordingly.”

Other agencies involved in the investigation piggybacked on that sentiment.

“The defendants profited handsomely by abusing their positions and taking advantage of the trust placed in law enforcement,’’ FBI chief William DelBagno said, adding that the agency is committed to “holding bad actors accountable for violating the oath they swore to uphold.”

Attorney General Kathy Jennings said cops “and especially police leaders who commit crimes of dishonesty are not just harming the community and taxpayers they serve; they harm every peace officer and every public servant whose work and reputation are undermined when the public’s trust is violated.”

Defense attorney Eugene J. Maurer Jr., who represented Cathell, said the town checked the OT records against “key fob information and cell phone information and witness information and come to find out that these guys weren’t working when they said they were working.”

His client readily admitted his crimes, Maurer said, adding that Cathell forfeited a career in the beach town with about 1,100 residents whose population swells by several thousand in the summer.

“It’s probably not the most dangerous police job in the world in Bethany Beach,’’ the lawyer said.

Maurer said federal sentencing guidelines suggest some prison time for the former police leaders, but he would be seeking probation for his client.

“You have to try to find some kind of variance as to why prison would not be appropriate here,’’ Maurer said. “He’s a pretty good guy despite this. He’s been remorseful, cooperative and didn’t hold back. He just owned right up to it.”

Attorney John Malik, who represents Redmon, did not comment.

Town manager Cliff Graviet, who once headed the Delaware State Police, did not respond to a request for comment about how the town is recovering from the betrayal of their former top two cops. Patrick Foley, who was a sergeant in the Redmon regime, has been chief since April 2024.

Graviet’s office also did not respond to a request from WHYY News for Redmon and Cathell’s salaries in 2023, their final year on the job, while they were stealing from the town.