BOURNE – From Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office: On September 18th, the Barnstable Superior Court dismissed the lawsuit brought against Donna D. Buckley as Sheriff of Barnstable County by the Cape & Islands District Attorney’s Office. ”
From the beginning this action by the District Attorney has been “A solution in search of a problem” said Sheriff Buckley. “The Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office has never failed to honor the district attorney’s request for case-specific information, and we remain fully committed to meeting the Commonwealth’s obligations under Brady.”
“For more than a year,” Buckley continued, “this misguided effort by the District Attorney has consumed valuable time and resources of the Sheriff’s Office.”
Through this lawsuit, the district attorney sought to go beyond well-established procedures for the Sheriff’s Office and local police departments. It sought to compel the Sheriff to provide more than 20 years of personnel material on every employee, employed at any time, regardless of whether those employees were ever involved in a case.
Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Michael K. Callan agreed with Sheriff Buckley, concluding that the district attorney’s interpretation of the Brady Police “seeks more that just potentially exculpatory evidence” required by law and that the Sheriff has no duty to comply with the district attorney’s requested made “in the absence of a criminal prosecution.
Judge Callan also dismissed a similar lawsuit filed by the district attorney against Sheriff Robert W. Ogden, and Dukes County. “Now we move forward and redirect our efforts where they belong-to public safety for the people of Barnstable County,” Sheriff Buckley concluded.
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Cape Wide News reached out to the district attorney’s office for comment. A spokesperson said they are reviewing the Judge’s ruling and will decide how to proceed from here.
