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The Select Board has approved a $295,000 settlement resolving all outstanding financial matters tied to Police Officer Christopher Gallo’s arbitration case and reinstatement, concluding a four-year personnel dispute that has cost the town at least $635,000.
Under the agreement, Gallo will receive $260,000 in back wages covering regular salary, overtime and detail pay he would have earned had he not been suspended or terminated, along with $35,000 in nonwage reimbursement for health-insurance premiums he paid while off the town payroll. The total compensates him for the period between his suspension in June 2021 and reinstatement in March 2025, following a state arbitrator’s ruling that Marblehead lacked just cause for termination.
The payout will be made in two installments: about $150,000, including the insurance reimbursement, will be issued within 30 days of execution, and the remaining $145,000 will be paid by July 31, 2026. The town will also pay the remaining fees owed to the arbitrator. Officials said the agreement represents a full and final resolution of the arbitration’s financial component and includes no admission of wrongdoing by either party.
Gallo, a 25-plus-year veteran of the Marblehead Police Department, was placed on administrative leave in June 2021 after the town received an anonymous complaint accusing him of spending extended periods at home during overnight shifts. The complaint included photographs purportedly showing Gallo’s vehicle parked outside his house while he was on duty.
A 48-page arbitration decision issued in February 2025 by state arbitrator Mary Ellen Shea determined the town’s investigation was deeply flawed. Shea wrote that officials failed to authenticate the photographs or verify the source of the complaint and had instructed investigators not to interview the suspected informant, believed to be a former officer Gallo had previously reported for misconduct.
A second charge stemmed from a July 2021 domestic incident involving Gallo’s girlfriend, who called 911 during an argument. Responding officers found no evidence of wrongdoing, yet town officials later cited the episode as evidence of poor judgment. Shea rejected that reasoning, finding that Gallo’s conduct was not evidence of punishable misconduct but reflected the personal challenges facing a family affected by alcoholism.
In February 2024, Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer adopted a hearing officer’s recommendation to terminate Gallo. Shea ultimately ruled that the town lacked just cause for both the suspension and termination and ordered Gallo reinstated with full back pay, benefits and seniority, directing that all disciplinary records be removed from his file. Gallo returned to active duty in March 2025 after completing retraining required by the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.
Before Wednesday’s vote, Marblehead had already spent about $340,000 on the case, according to a Marblehead Current report. That figure included $251,824 in salary paid to Gallo while he was on administrative leave, $66,735 in town-funded health-insurance premiums and nearly $190,000 in legal fees to outside counsel for arbitration and related hearings.
