Word on the grapevine for months has been that there is a culture of secrecy within the town of Dewey Beach. Word has been that if you scratch a little below the surface of the town, a hemorrhaging wound will appear. The latest scandal to rock the small beach town has to do with 12-year Dewey Beach Police Dept. veteran Erik Campbell. 

According to his attorney Martin Haverly: “Erik Campbell was retaliated against and harassed in a variety of ways simply because he filed grievances with the Dewey Beach Police Dept.” 

Grievances that Campbell supposedly filed:
*Town Manager Gordon Elliot abused the DelGIS Criminal Record System
*A failure to implement the use of taser guns.

Retaliation:
*Excessively demoted by Present Chief Mackert
*Mackert said: “you’re making your own life harder than it has to be by filing grievances” 

Campbell has said basically was demoted just for doing his job. The most startling is the above alleged quote of Dewey Police Chief Samuel Mackert. Mackert has a colorful past of his own. None of us forget the crime Mackert was convicted of in 1996, do we? I’m sorry.. It would be wrong to bring up past charges and crimes when dealing with a brand new case, right? Enter Pat Wright.. (To be continued below) 

“Hello I’m Sam Mackert” — When I asked Haverly if others with, perhaps, a more colorful past had been promoted above Campbell, his response spoke volumes: “It’s hard for me to discuss all the evidence. I believe there would be some people that we could compare.. Those people are third parties, they have rights, too.” 

The Retaliation Continues? First His Rank, Now His Good Name? Enter Pat Wright
How odd a coincidence that directly following my interview with Haverly comes chiming in former Dewey Mayor Pat Wright.. “I really like Erik as a person, He’s a nice guy, but, I want to bring up a previous lawsuit that was brought against Erik.” Ta Da. Let’s bring him down a notch, shall we, Pat? “They make some accusations against Erik that are sort of consistent with his personality, and he got off on this one, but the town of Dewey Beach stood behind him and they’ve always stood behind him.. and Erik, this is not the first time he’s got into a little bit of trouble… It just shows you that there is a consistent problem with Erik.. but, I don’t really want to get into it.” 

However, according to the Cape Gazette: Rob Witsil, acting town attorney, said he sees no correlation between the suits. Then why bring it up except as an assault on Erik’s character? Also, who alerted the Gazette as to the existence of the 2003 lawsuit that Campbell was involved in? 

Lest We Forget
To me, the uncovering of the 2003 lawsuit looks undoubtedly like a smoke screen.. In fact the fog was so thick coming to work on Tuesday morning; I barely made it in alive. The questions still remain…were Campbell’s original grievances legit? Did Elliot abuse the DelGIS system to look up the background of a town employee? Was Campbell retaliated against for breaking that cone of silence? …and what about those tasers, anyway?