The town has settled an arbitration case with Marblehead Police Officer Chris Gallo, Select Board Chair Dan Fox announced Oct. 22.
On Feb. 12, an arbitrator ordered the town to reinstate Gallo nearly a year after the Select Board terminated his employment. The Select Board then decided not to appeal that decision.
The town will pay Gallo a total of $295,000 for salary and missed overtime and details he might have earned during the time he was suspended with pay in June 2021 through his reinstatement in March. The total also includes $35,000 for reimbursed insurance payments. The money will be paid in two installments, this fiscal year and next fiscal year.
Gallo was accused of spending extended amounts of time at home during his overnight shifts. He was also accused of conduct unbecoming of an officer related to a domestic incident involving his girlfriend.
The arbitrator, however, ruled that the town’s findings were flawed.
The $295,000 is on top of the at least $340,149 in legal and other expenses incurred by the town during Gallo’s suspension and arbitration process, according to town financial records obtained through public records requests. That total includes the $251,824 the town paid Gallo while he was on leave.
Fox called the settlement a “full and final resolution of all financial matters” related to the Gallo case, “without admission of guilt on either side.”
“This is always a compromise,” he said.
