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On Thursday, Galibois’ office began filing motions in various cases stating that it could not fulfill its Brady obligations because Dukes County Sheriff Robert W. Ogden’s office wasn’t providing the DA with all of the information it sought, which included records going back two decades. In each motion, the DA’s office asked a judge to order compliance within two weeks or else hold a hearing about the matter.
No judge has ruled yet, according to court records and the DA, who said his office plans to file the same motions for more cases on a rolling basis as they have court dates. The cases on Thursday included assault and battery and motor vehicle charges, according to court records.
The sheriff’s office declined to comment.
According to an affidavit filed by Galibois’ office, Ogden said in September and again in February that his office had reviewed all officers in Dukes County — which comprises the Vineyard and small nearby islands — and that none of them had issues under Galibois’ Brady policy. In February, after the DA asked for 20 years of records, the sheriff’s office added that it would review past employees, too.
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But, Galibois said, the sheriff’s office has not been responsive since.
“We understand that’s not something that could be produced overnight,” Galibois said. “We are trying to adhere to our obligations.”
On Thursday afternoon, Galibois said the assistant district attorney assigned to the island was going through the list of people due in court Friday to see which cases involve the sheriff’s office, and they’ll go back at it each day to potentially file more motions in any cases that involve the sheriff’s department, which books people arrested on the island.
“We wield a lot of authority, being prosecutors,” Galibois said Thursday. “We need to make sure — and the public has a vested interest in — knowing that we are abiding by both our professional obligations and moral and ethical obligations and that we are proceeding with a case that we believe in.”
Galibois and his top assistant district attorneys sought to avoid speculating over when the office would decide it’s unable to move ahead with cases. But, he said, “there is that potential” to start dropping them if the current situation continues.
The situation escalated just days from the onset Monday of what the attorneys on the Vineyard call “trial week” — the one week each month the court brings in jurors and holds trials.
“We hope to be in the position to be able to certify that we’re in compliance with our Brady obligation,” Galibois said. “If we are not in that position, we are concerned with what may happen with a given case.”
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Regarding police witnesses, “Brady material” about a law-enforcement officer could include whether the officer had been convicted of a crime, whether they have been untruthful in an internal-affairs investigation or in an affidavit, or have been found to have used excessive force, racial profiling, or sexual harassment, according to the DA office’s policies.
The Cape and Islands district attorney’s office laid out a timeline of its correspondence with the sheriff’s office in an affidavit filed in court on Thursday. Second Assistant District Attorney Tara Cappola, who leads the unit that deals with Brady materials, wrote that the office first sent a letter to the sheriff’s office in May 2023, notifying it about its obligations under new Brady policies.
The affidavit outlines correspondence between the two sides, including the request earlier this year for 20 years of records and a list of current employees.
“I have not received such a list from the sheriff’s department,” Cappola wrote. “At this point the Commonwealth is unable to certify that we have complied with our ‘Brady’ obligations on this case because there are sheriff’s department witnesses involved.”
The 20-year mark, the prosecutors said, ensures that the office has information about officers who have transferred to different law-enforcement agencies, and that issues have not cropped up with officers since they filed old police reports.
“We might see something where whoa, this officer has been dishonest multiple times,” Cappola said. “We don’t know what we don’t know.”
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Galibois said it appears the other law-enforcement entities in the area are following the DA’s office’s policies.
In a statement, Anthony J. Benedetti, chief counsel of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, praised Galibois’ move.
“Across the state, we continue to have significant issues with prosecutors failing to provide our attorneys and clients with mandatory, exculpatory evidence — despite hundreds of requests,” Benedetti said in a statement. “This failure hurts our clients, our ability to represent them and destroys confidence in the legal system.”
Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter.
