D.C.’s attorney general sued Redmond in 2023, accusing the former school employee of “breach of contract, and unjust enrichment … and submitting false or fraudulent statements to the District for payment.”
“Michael Redmond brazenly defrauded the District, collecting a paycheck from [D.C. Public Schools] for work he wasn’t doing while simultaneously working at and being paid by a school in Rhode Island,” the city’s Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement on Wednesday.
Multiple attempts to reach Redmond were unsuccessful.
D.C. Public Schools spokesperson Evan Lambert said Redmond no longer works for the district, and that employees must undergo annual ethics training and affirm they are following rules regarding outside employment.
“It is the expectation of DC Public Schools (DCPS) that employees demonstrate full commitment and focus to their roles during their tour of duty,” Lambert said in a statement.
Redmond had been employed by D.C. Public Schools since 2014. He worked as an assistant principal at then-Truesdell Education Campus and, from 2019 until November 2020, held the same role at Kramer Middle School.
Redmond was a celebrated leader. At Truesdell, he started a popular book club and was awarded $5,000 from the nonprofit DC Public Education Fund for “excellence in leadership” in 2018. Redmond helped students grieve after a classmate was fatally shot while he worked at Kramer.
But for five months in 2020 – when D.C. Public Schools had not yet returned to in-person learning during the coronavirus pandemic – Redmond was also working as the principal at E-Cubed Academy in Providence, Rhode Island, prosecutors said. He began working for the New England school district in July 2020, according to officials. On July 28, Providence Public Schools welcomed Redmond in a Facebook post that lauded his achievements at Kramer, including producing high sixth-grade math scores, reducing suspensions and driving down truancy.
Meanwhile, that school year, Kramer had started partial in-person work for staff. Prosecutors say Redmond – citing an “immune deficiency” and claiming his partner was immunocompromised – was granted an accommodation that allowed him to continue working from home.
But authorities say Redmond was actually in Providence, where he continued collecting paychecks – more than $45,000 of his salary – from D.C. Public Schools for work he did not complete. He earned an annual salary of $125,434 at Kramer.
School district leaders in D.C. did not find out about Redmond’s second job until November 2020, at which point he was placed on administrative leave, according to the attorney general. He resigned from the D.C. school district on Nov. 30, 2020, prosecutors said. The Rhode Island school system also investigated, and Redmond was “separated from” the district in April 2021, according to the Providence Journal.
In December 2021, Redmond entered into a settlement with the D.C. Office of Government Ethics and agreed to pay $10,000 in fines. He was told he’d have to pay back the part of his salary he collected while working in Rhode Island, officials said.
But the attorney general said Redmond did not pay the fine or give back his wages. The District sued Redmond in June 2023, accusing him of breaching the settlement agreement, unjust enrichment and making false claims for payment.
The D.C. Superior Court ruled in the city’s favor last month, finding that “[i]nstead of fulfilling his responsibilities of educating the District’s youth, [Redmond] engaged in a pattern of deceit designed to cheat the public coffers.”