Court Upholds Firing of Former MPD Captain Gregory Gallant
Suffolk Superior Court rules against Gallant in final chapter of years-long legal battle
Written by: Dan Shibilia
A Suffolk County Superior Court judge has officially ended former Methuen Police Captain Gregory Gallant’s legal fight to get his job back, ruling on April 7, 2026, that his 2022 termination was justified.
Justice Cathleen E. Campbell denied Gallant’s motion for judgment on the pleadings and allowed cross-motions filed by both the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission and the City of Methuen … meaning the court sided entirely with the city.
You can read the full text here → https://www.mass.gov/doc/gallant-gregory-v-city-of-methuen-related-superior-court-decision-4726-issued-by-superior-court/download
What Did the Judge Actually Do?
This wasn’t a full trial. Both sides asked the judge to rule based solely on the written record (the documents, decisions, and findings already produced through years of administrative proceedings). That process is called a motion for judgment on the pleadings, and it’s essentially each side saying “the facts are clear enough … just decide.”
Gallant argued the Commission got it wrong and asked the judge to overturn its decision. The Commission and the City filed their own cross-motions asking the judge to uphold it. Justice Campbell sided with the Commission and the City on every argument Gallant raised.
How We Got Here
The case stems from events dating back to 2017, when Gallant led the superior officers’ union bargaining team during negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement. After a tentative deal was reached, Gallant, tasked with drafting the final contract, inserted more than twenty pay-related language changes that were never agreed upon at the bargaining table. The revisions, which would have dramatically expanded the base pay formula, were so significant that city officials calculated they would have resulted in annual salaries of $200,000 to $500,000 for superior officers… increases of between 77% and 224% over the prior contract.
The altered CBA was signed by then-Mayor Stephen Zanni, who later testified he never read it before signing.
When a new administration took office in 2018 and discovered the financial implications, chaos followed. The Massachusetts Office of the Inspector General opened an investigation, a union grievance went to arbitration, and ultimately both the OIG and an independent arbitrator concluded that Gallant had unilaterally revised the contract without the City’s knowledge or agreement. You may recall the infamous statement Attorney for the Union Gary Nolan sent to Gallant about the last-minute changes he had added to the contract, "You covered all the bases, Greg. Nice work. Hopefully they (city councilors) don't have calculators at the meeting. Good luck."
In February 2022, Gallant received a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice advising him he had become a target of a federal grand jury investigation for possible wire fraud and obstruction of justice. Months later, the City terminated his employment after a disciplinary hearing.
The Civil Service Battle
Gallant appealed his firing to the Civil Service Commission, and a Division of Administrative Law Appeals (DALA) magistrate initially recommended reversing the discharge. But the Commission rejected that recommendation in an October 2024 decision, finding that the City did have just cause citing Gallant’s conduct unbecoming of a police officer and his evasive and contradictory testimony before OIG investigators and the arbitrator.
Gallant then brought the matter to Superior Court, arguing the Commission had overstepped. The court disagreed on every count.
Justice Campbell found the Commission’s decision was supported by substantial evidence, that it properly considered Gallant’s invocation of his Fifth Amendment rights as part of its broader findings, and that a procedural argument over a one-day deadline did not invalidate the Commission’s ruling.
The Bottom Line
After nearly a decade of legal proceedings spanning a union arbitration, a federal investigation, an OIG inquiry, a civil service appeal, and now Superior Court review, Gregory Gallant’s termination from the Methuen Police Department stands.
The City of Methuen has not yet issued a public comment on the ruling.