A high-ranking white Boynton Beach police official accused of bigotry was cleared after a wide-ranging investigation found no evidence supporting the charge, plus Black staffers denying it.
An anonymous message sent in June 2025 asked the police department to investigate Deputy Chief Matthew Zeller, claiming allegations existed of his "discrimination, racism, harassment, intimidation, bullying and belittling of employees," especially Black women.
It also accused the 20-year city officer of denying training opportunities that would help Black employees' careers.
But after a probe conducted by an outside attorney and a Miami-area police department, investigators concluded by January that no evidence supported the accusation, a recently released report
shows.
Boynton Beach initially asked an outside attorney, Stephanie Marchman, to interview police department staff about Zeller. But after several weeks, City Manager Dan Dugger and Police Chief Joseph DeGiulio asked the Coral Gables Police Department in Miami-Dade County to handle it.
Dugger and DeGiulio claimed Marchman had not been recording all her interviews, though doing so is not required, Coral Gables Commander Rudy Gonzalez wrote in his report.
The anonymous letter provided neither specific claims nor verifiable information against Zeller, Gonzalez noted.
The letter asked investigators to interview 54 current or former staffers with the city government and its police department to learn about Zeller's allegedly racist and sexist incidents.
Coral Gables police emailed 44 people named in the letter. Of those, 20 replied saying they had no complaint against anyone in the department.
A Black female captain, Yolando Sanders, who once worked in the department's Internal Affairs division, reportedly told Marchman she never had a problem with Zeller's treatment of her or others. She did not feel that either Zeller or other high-ranking police officials denied training opportunities based on race, she said.
Two Black female finance staffers, though, brought up a remark Zeller made in May 2020, after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis when a police officer kneeled on the men's neck. "So, are you guys are going to riot, too?” Zeller reportedly asked the staffers. He was a captain at the time.
One of those staffers, Zeneta Stafford, said she felt Zeller's comment was racist. She talked to him about it. He apologized. He said she can tell him if he ever makes her feel uncomfortable.
Zeller later encouraged her to go to police academy to join the police force when she told him she wanted to, she said. Stafford never had a problem with Zeller in general, the report says.
Christine Kump, the assistant to the police chief, said Zeller had advocated that year for raises for two high-ranking nonwhite staffers: 911 communications manager Monique Lewis, a Black woman, and Information Technology Director Carl Mericada, who is Latino. Lewis was laid off this year.
The investigation into Zeller spawned another Internal Affairs investigation.
Maj. Michael Johnson was accused in July 2025 of breaking Boynton Beach police policy by trying to persuade technical services unit manager Karl Maracotta to testify against Zeller in that investigation.
Maracotta told Boynton Beach Internal Affairs that Johnson told him on July 17, 2025, that others in the department were telling the Zeller case investigator that the deputy chief had treated Maracotta improperly.
Maracotta said he was "shocked," as he had no complaints about Zeller, the report says.
Johnson denied talking with Maracotta about the Zeller case. Johnson was cleared after Internal Affairs concluded in October 2025 that the accusation against him had no evidence.
Boynton Beach police put Zeller on administrative leave from Aug. 1 to Dec. 8 in 2025, and Johnson from Aug. 8 to Oct. 30 that year.
"The Boynton Beach Police Department is committed to transparency and thoroughly investigates all complaints to ensure accountability, fairness, and an objective review of the facts," a department spokesperson said.
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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Probe clears Boynton deputy police chief of racism, harassment charges
