Martha's Vineyard sheriff won't turn over records sought by DA's office

Although he now faces legal action from Cape and Islands District Attorney Rob Gailbois, the Dukes County Sheriff has no plans to comply with Galibois' request regarding employee files going back 20 years.

Dukes County Prosecuting Attorney Jack Collins on Thursday [Martha’s Vineyard] Sheriff Robert W. Ogden and Nantucket County Sheriff James A. Perelman said Ogden was the subject of a lawsuit filed by Galibois' office this week.

As part of the suit, Galibois is seeking a court order requiring the sheriff to provide his office with 20 years of personnel records of department employees — an attempt, he says, to comply with the court's landmark ruling. Supreme Court of 1963, Brady v. Maryland.

The ruling requires prosecutors to disclose any information that could be helpful to a defendant's case, including police disciplinary records.

• Learn more: Sheriff sued by Cape DA says records sought could harm his office

Galibois said the records serve to fulfill prosecutors' discovery obligations under a recent interpretation of the ruling and state and federal law. But Collins says Galibois is the only prosecutor in the state seeking such a wide range of cases.

In fact, he said in an interview Thursday, the Brady obligations the sheriff's office might be required to fulfill only apply to pending cases in which a department employee would be called as a witness or would be involved in the investigation. In these cases, the Sheriff's Office has always met the requirements of the law.

“Whenever they’ve asked us, we’ve always done it, and we’ll always continue to do it,” Collins told MassLive. “There has never been a case. Not a single instance where they asked us for information on a pending case that we did not provide in a timely manner. Not one.”

Collins also noted that the sheriff's office does not make arrests and that its primary role is to place people in jail while they await trial.

“Our only participation may be a courtesy breath test for them,” he said. “We don't make arrests, we don't go out and enforce the law. We do not conduct investigations. So in reality, our involvement, or any concern about Brady among our people, is pure speculation and almost non-existent. Be serious. »

The district attorney's office said it fears it will be forced to start dropping cases because it can no longer attest that it fulfilled its obligations under Brady.

Already, one case has been thrown out by an Edgartown District Court judge after the DA's office filed a motion saying it could not fulfill its obligations.

• Learn more: Cape DA sues MV sheriff for non-disclosure of records, putting business in jeopardy

Collins forcefully denied the case had anything to do with the sheriff's office.

“Nothing to do with Brady, nothing to do with us,” he said. “It’s a total fabrication.”

While Collins declined to speculate on Galibois' motives, he accused the prosecutor of “grandstanding.”

“It has nothing to do with his duty to prosecute,” Collins said. “What does the case of someone who doesn't even work for us anymore, who worked for a sheriff's office 20 years ago, have to do with this case? This is absolute nonsense.

A spokesperson for Galibois declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

Before either lawsuit was filed, Galibois told the Boston Globe in an interview that his office had to make sure he was meeting his “professional obligations and his moral and ethical obligations and that we pursue a case in which we believe.”