MARBLEHEAD — A state arbitrator has ordered the town to reinstate a Marblehead police officer, who had been suspended since 2021, to his position with restored back pay and benefits, after determining the town did not have just cause to terminate his employment.
Christopher Gallo, who has worked for the Marblehead police for 27 years, had been placed on paid administrative leave pending his appeal of two separate suspensions for alleged misconduct — one over a report that he was spending large portions of his overnight shift at home, and the other stemming from a domestic abuse call to his home that led to an investigation by the Department of Children and Families of neglect.
State arbitrator Mary Ellen Shea, in a decision issued Feb. 12, criticized the department and town’s investigations into the alleged instances of misconduct, arguing the department violated its own internal affairs guidelines by waiting some nine months after one incident, refusing to grant hearings for almost three years, repeatedly including allegations against Gallo that had been previously determined to be false, and not properly assessing the credibility of an informant who may have been acting out of personal revenge.
“Ever since (Gallo) blew the whistle on the hateful conduct of a former employee (who carved a swastika into the paint of another officer’s car), it was clear there would be payback, and his job and reputation were on the chopping block,” attorney Gary Nolan, who represented Gallo, said. “As was highlighted by the arbitrator, the most troubling thing about this case is the lengths to which so many agents of the town all just went along with, or turned a blind eye to, the malicious and unfair treatment of this 27-year veteran officer.”
In May 2021, the department was notified by the state Inspector General’s office that they received an anonymous complaint alleging that Gallo had committed time fraud, with the report showing photos of Gallo’s assigned cruiser parked outside his home 104 times on 19 different dates, including what appeared to be one five-hour stretch and one 12-hour stretch on dates when he was scheduled to work overtime, according to the arbitration document. Based on those initial findings, on June 16, then-Chief Robert Picariello placed Gallo on paid administrative leave and suspension. Gallo would start the appeal process five days later.
Outside of failing to promptly investigate the complaint and provide timely hearings for Gallo to appeal the suspension, Shea (the arbitrator) argued that the town violated policy when neither the Inspector General nor the town’s internal affairs investigator authenticated the images or assessed the credibility of the informant — the identity of whom the arbitration document explains was widely presumed to be former officer Timothy Tufts, who had resigned in 2020 after Gallo reported him for scratching a swastika into another officer’s vehicle.
“The town did not authenticate the photos it knew 1) could be manipulated and 2) were likely taken by a person seeking revenge against officer Gallo,” Shea wrote.
The town argued that whoever makes an anonymous complaint to the Inspector General could not be questioned under Massachusetts whistleblower laws. The arbitrator, however, said that protection afforded to a whistleblower also then restricts police or another law enforcement agency from conducting a full and fair investigation.
Tufts’ and Gallo’s history goes back further than that one incident, starting in 2020 when Picariello suspended Gallo for allegedly using excessive force during an incident at Miller Plaza earlier that year when he and Tufts responded to an incident. The charge of excessive force was resolved and Gallo was exonerated after a review of the officers’ body camera footage revealed that Tufts, not Gallo, had a physical interaction with the citizen.
On July 26, 2021, while Gallo was still on administrative leave pending the investigation into alleged time fraud, the Marblehead Police Department received a 911 call from Gallo’s girlfriend saying he was hurting her, the children and the dog. Several officers responded to Gallo’s home and quickly determined the report was false. The girlfriend recanted the allegation and witness interviews confirmed Gallo had not been violent, and it was the girlfriend who became angry and chased Gallo when he asked her to leave the house because she was so intoxicated.
Then-Chief Picariello cleared Gallo of any domestic abuse or violence, but advised him he was being suspended for alleged rules violations by “enabling an alcoholic, exposing his children to the alcoholic, and bringing discredit upon the department.” The suspension notice stated, “… there is no evidence that you assaulted the female party as alleged, (but) I do find that you violated several Marblehead Police Department Rules and Regulations by your actions on the day of the incident.”
On Aug. 25, 2021, Nolan appealed the chief’s decision to suspend Gallo. The town didn’t act on the appeal or the alleged rules violations until 2023, when a disciplinary hearing was conducted that March 29 and May 16 to address both the time fraud and alleged domestic abuse incident.
Nine months later, the hearing officer upheld the five-day suspension for alleged time fraud and for the alleged rule violations from the July 29, 2021, incident, and recommended the Board of Selectmen fire Gallo. On Feb. 23, 2024, Gallo was notified the board followed that recommendation and he was fired the next day. Despite this, the matter remained unresolved and was submitted for arbitration in June.
The town argued that the delay in getting to arbitration was for a good cause, as multiple turnovers at Town Hall and the Police Department occurred over this four-year period.
“In that time there was retirement of a police chief, followed by a turnover in town administrators,” said current Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer. “The administrator at the time (Jason Silva) had left, then there was an interim (John McGinn), and then I was hired. Shortly after I came in, the legal counsel that was working on this for the town retired. And those turnovers happening one after the other were all factors as to why there was a delay in the process.”
Shea gave the town 60 days to implement the remedies she ordered, including reinstating Gallo to his position, removing references to the disciplinary actions from his record, restoring all wages, benefits and seniority he would have received, as well as paying him for lost overtime and detail work opportunities.
The next step for the town is for the Select Board to meet in executive session, at a currently unscheduled meeting, to make a decision as to whether to appeal the decision or accept the arbitrator’s judgement.
Michael McHugh can be contacted at mmchugh@northofboston.com or at 781-799-5202