The DA Who Can’t Stop Breaking the Laws He’s Paid to Enforce
Meet Robert J. Galibois II — Cape and Islands District Attorney, self-styled champion of justice, and a man who apparently believes the conflict of interest laws that apply to everyone else simply don’t apply to him. After all, who’s going to prosecute the prosecutor?
That’s not a rhetorical question in Barnstable County. It’s a genuine crisis of accountability.
The Car Crash That Launched a Thousand Spin Jobs
On February 23, 2023 — barely weeks after being sworn into office — DA Galibois was involved in a car accident while making an illegal U-turn in his state vehicle. The Barnstable Police Department issued him a warning for three separate violations: improper turn, marked lanes violation, and failure to file an accident report. Three violations. On day one of the job, essentially.
Now here’s where it gets rich. Instead of accepting responsibility — the thing DA offices demand of everyone they prosecute — Galibois directed his own Second Assistant District Attorney to draft a press release. On official DA letterhead. Using taxpayer-funded staff time. To spin the story in his favor. The Massachusetts State Ethics Commission determined this was a violation of the conflict of interest law — specifically, using public resources to further his own private interests.
He paid a $5,000 fine. He signed a Disposition Agreement admitting the violations. He waived his right to a hearing. And then he went right back to work — prosecuting other people for their misconduct.
The Landlord Connection: Promoting a Campaign Donor’s Apartments on the Public Dime
But wait — there’s more. Also in February 2023, a donor to Galibois’s election campaign reached out to offer rental apartments to DA’s Office staff before they were publicly advertised. Galibois didn’t recuse himself. He didn’t pass the message along through a personal channel. He sent an office-wide email to his entire staff — using the resources of the District Attorney’s Office — promoting his donor’s apartments. He subsequently personally referred two of his Assistant District Attorneys to the donor.
Using your public office to reward your campaign donors. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this is called a conflict of interest violation. In the rest of America, we call it swamp politics — and it happens at every level from Washington D.C. all the way down to the Cape Cod DA’s office.
The State Ethics Commission’s Executive Director David A. Wilson put it plainly: “Public resources are to be used for the public’s benefit.” Galibois used them for his own benefit and his donor’s benefit. That’s the summary. There’s no ambiguity here.
Still In Office. Still Prosecuting. Still the DA.
Despite being fined for ethical violations, despite admitting guilt in writing, despite using his DA’s office as a personal PR firm — Galibois remains the Cape and Islands District Attorney. He has the power to decide who gets prosecuted in Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket counties. He decides which cases move forward, which get dismissed, and who faces the full weight of the law.
Think about that the next time you get a traffic ticket. Think about it when a local business owner faces regulatory scrutiny. Think about it when someone without the right connections ends up on the wrong side of a charging decision.
Fighting His Own Sheriff: The Galibois vs. Ogden Saga
If the ethics violations weren’t enough entertainment, Galibois also made headlines by suing the Dukes County Sheriff, Robert Ogden, in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court — a dramatic escalation of a fight over access to potential evidence. The District Attorney literally sued the Sheriff. On Martha’s Vineyard. These are the people running the justice system on Cape Cod and the Islands, folks. They can’t even get along with each other.
When the top law enforcement officials of a region are fighting each other in the state’s highest court while one of them is on record for ethics violations, something has gone deeply wrong. The people of Cape Cod and the Islands deserve a DA whose greatest legal battles are against actual criminals — not against the sheriff’s department.
A Note on Accountability
In Massachusetts, DAs are elected officials. Robert Galibois is up for re-election. The voters of the Cape and Islands will have the opportunity to render their own verdict. We suggest they consider the evidence carefully — there’s a documented record, signed admission, and a $5,000 fine to start with.
The job of the District Attorney is to hold others accountable for breaking the law. The least we can ask is that the DA hold himself to the same standard. So far, the record suggests that is not happening.
🗳️ UPDATE 2026: The Voters Get Their Say on September 1 — And Nine of His Own Former Employees Just Spoke First
When we wrote the section above, we said the voters of the Cape and Islands would render their own verdict. That verdict now has a date: Tuesday, September 1, 2026, in the Democratic primary.
Robert Galibois is being challenged by Michael Giardino — and Giardino is not some outsider throwing rocks. He is a Dennis-Yarmouth High School graduate who spent twelve years inside the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office as an assistant district attorney and Chief of District Court. He currently prosecutes cases for the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office. He knows exactly what that building is supposed to look like when it is run properly.
The Letter
In early June 2026, nine women who used to work for Robert Galibois signed an open letter and sent it to the Falmouth Enterprise and two other Cape Cod newspapers. Not anonymous sources. Not opposition researchers. An attorney, victim advocates, and administrative personnel — people who sat in that office and watched how it was run — putting their names on paper.
Their central number is the one you should remember:
Of the 60 people Galibois hired, 35 have chosen to leave.
That is not turnover. That is an evacuation. When more than half the people you personally brought in walk out the door, the problem is not the people.
The signatories describe an office that became, in their words, “confusing and inefficient” — with “a revolving door with constant staff departures.” They allege that “women with decades of service were demoted in favor of inexperienced leadership.”
The Part That Should Bother You Most
Everything above is about office politics, and office politics is cheap. This next part is not.
The letter alleges that victim advocates were reassigned away from direct victim services and put on administrative duties.
Understand what a victim advocate does. When someone on this peninsula is assaulted, when a family loses somebody to a drunk driver, when a child has to testify — the victim advocate is the person who sits with them, explains what happens next, and makes sure they are not alone in a courthouse hallway on the worst day of their life.
The allegation is that those people were moved to paperwork. And that the constant churn out the door meant victims kept getting handed to somebody new.
You can have every opinion in the world about a $5,000 ethics fine, a campaign donor’s apartments, or a press release written on the public’s dime. But if the people who did the job are telling you that crime victims on Cape Cod got worse service — that is not a political story. That is the actual job, failed.
The Pattern, Assembled
Put the record in one place and see if it looks like a man focused on the work:
- A $5,000 civil penalty and a signed Disposition Agreement for violating the state conflict of interest law.
- Office resources and letterhead used to produce a flattering press release about his own traffic incident.
- An office-wide email promoting a campaign donor’s rental apartments to his staff.
- Suing the Dukes County Sheriff in the Supreme Judicial Court.
- 35 of 60 hires gone, per nine former employees.
His challenger put it plainly: Galibois, he said, “seems to care more about promoting himself and his office than he does about the day-to-day running of that office.”
Reasonable people can disagree about a fine. It is harder to disagree with nine of your own former employees, a departure rate above fifty percent, and a twelve-year veteran of your own office running against you.
September 1. Democratic Primary.
Massachusetts has no recall for a District Attorney. There is exactly one mechanism, it comes around once every four years, and this is it.
In a one-party state, the primary is the election. Whoever wins on September 1 is almost certainly your next District Attorney. If you sit that one out and complain in November, you skipped the part that counted.
Check your registration. Know the date. Show up.
The characterizations of the June 2026 letter are the stated allegations of its nine signatories, as reported by the Falmouth Enterprise / Cape News; they are not findings of any court or agency. The $5,000 civil penalty and Disposition Agreement are matters of public record with the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission. This site does not coordinate with, and is not authorized by, any candidate or campaign.
Sources — check us
We would rather you verify this than believe us.
- NBC Boston — Cape DA fined $5,000 for violating conflict of interest law
- Massachusetts State Ethics Commission (the Disposition Agreement and civil penalty are public record — search the Commission’s press releases)
- Cape Cod Times — Galibois challenged in Sept. 1 primary
- Michael Giardino campaign site (his own words and background — read the challenger directly)
- Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office — official biography (the incumbent’s own account)
The June 2026 open letter characterizations are the stated allegations of its nine signatories as reported by the Falmouth Enterprise and other Cape newspapers; they are not findings of any court or agency. The $5,000 civil penalty and signed Disposition Agreement are matters of public record. This site does not coordinate with, and is not authorized by, any candidate or campaign. If we have a fact wrong, tell us and we will correct it.