ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - TelAve -- HP Attorneys Partner Colin Bell again successfully represented Vineland Police Chief Rudolph Beu against unfounded and improper disciplinary action taken against him by the City of Vineland. Vineland had demoted Beu from chief to deputy chief and suspended him for 6 months based on alleged misconduct. Among other things, Vineland alleged that Beu told an Officer Ronald DeMarchi that he would ensure his promotion in exchange for sexual favors from the officer's wife and daughter. Those allegations were leaked to the media and received national attention. However, an investigation by the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office cleared Beu of all wrongdoing and found that no such comments were made.

Nevertheless, Vineland chose to ignore the conclusions of the Prosecutor's Office and charge Beu anyway. Following 15 days of testimony, the presiding administrative law judge, Hon. Catherine A. Tuohy, issued a comprehensive 184-page decision finding the testimony of DeMarchi not to be credible and to be contradicted by eye-witnesses present at the time. Therefore, she dismissed all charges related to those allegations. See ALJ Decision, at 127-128. (https://www.hpattorneys.com/pdfs/A003_BEU_RUDOLPHv2.pdf).

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Likewise, the judge found that civilian Vineland personnel had attempted to illegally access confidential internal affairs records and unjustifiably disciplined Beu when he did not allow them to review the records. Finally, the judge criticized Vineland's biased and unfair "investigation" of Beu by Vineland's outside counsel, Todd Gelfand, finding that "throughout the course of the hearing it was brought up that Gelfand was not an impartial investigator" and that his investigation report "failed to include documents that were exculpatory to Beu and failed to conduct interviews of persons who would have supported Beu's position."   See ALJ Decision, at 129.

On June 23, 2025, Judge Tuohy ultimately dismissed all charges against Beu, finding he had not engaged in any misconduct. On September 10, 2025, the Civil Service Commission affirmed the judge's decision and ordered Beu reinstated as chief of police, along with an award of backpay, seniority and of counsel fees.

"I am grateful that Judge Tuohy and Commission saw through this attempt to smear a police chief that has dedicated over 40 years of service to the City of Vineland. Chief Beu was accused of terrible misconduct and was the target of nationwide media coverage criticizing him for those accusations. A judge and the Commission have now ruled that DeMarchi's accusations, and all other disciplinary charges against Chief Beu by Vineland, are without merit and cleared his good name," said Bell.

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This is the second time the City has taken an illegal disciplinary action against Beu. In January 2024, after a 12-day trial, Bell obtained a decision reversing the City's illegal attempt to fire Beu. Again, a judge issued a comprehensive decision clearing him of all wrongdoing, and the Civil Service Commission ordered him reinstated with backpay, seniority, and counsel fees.

Over the last 5 years, Vineland has spent over a million taxpayer dollars in legal fees, costs, and backpay attempting to fire Beu. In fact, they recently filed a third round of baseless disciplinary charges that are currently in trial before a different administrative law judge. Bell again anticipates Chief Beu being cleared of all charges.

"The taxpayers of the City of Vineland deserve better than this. Their elected officials need to account for the waste of time and taxpayer money on their quest to pursue biased investigations and baseless disciplinary charges against Chief Beu, who is less than a year from mandatory retirement. They should be thanking him for his service and wishing him a happy retirement. Instead, since February, 2020, they have done nothing but waste taxpayer money on never-ending litigation that they have lost at every turn. Enough is enough," Bell concluded.