Florida Keys deputy threatened couple with a knife after they saw him pushing his girlfriend and 'intervened,' police said
Nicholas Galbo, of Key West, has been accused of domestic violence before
A Florida Keys deputy was charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon early Wednesday, after police said he went after a couple that intervened on behalf of a woman they saw him pushing.
Nicholas Joseph Galbo, 42, who was hired by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 7, 2020, “brandished a knife during an altercation on Wednesday in Key West,” the sheriff’s office said.
Galbo was outside downtown with a 30-year-old woman, who is a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, after “drinking and watching” the Stanley Cup Final, WPLG Local 10 reported, quoting from the police report.
At about 1 a.m. Galbo, “was arguing with a woman on Simonton Street when he grabbed the female victim,” the sheriff’s office said.
“Another couple attempted to intervene when Galbo punched the intervening male and brandished a knife, threatening the intervening couple,” the sheriff’s office said.
No serious injuries were reported.
The married couple that was passing by said they saw Galbo “grabbing and pushing” the woman while screaming at her to “put her f—-ing shoes on,” according to Local 10, which referred to the woman with Galbo as his girlfriend.
When they saw Galbo pushing the woman in the face, the couple intervened — at first one started helping Galbo’s girlfriend with her shoes.
But Galbo turned on them, police said.
“During the altercation, Galbo’s badge ended up on the ground and [the female bystander] picked it up,” the police report reads.
“This enraged Galbo so he started screaming at her. [The couple] began running in fear before handing the badge to a random driver as Galbo was pursuing them.”
Galbo followed the fleeing couple to their home nearby, police said, and “pulled out his pocket knife and was thrusting it at them in a stabbing motion while they were inside of their garage.”
Key West police made the arrest.
But it was the sheriff’s office that put out the arrest information, adding that Galbo is now out of a job.
“I have notified Deputy Galbo that I intend to terminate his employment pending a pre-termination hearing,” Sheriff Ramsay said in a statement.
Galbo was booked into the county jail on Stock Island — which is run by his employer Sheriff Rick Ramsay — at about 2 a.m.
Galbo was released at 4:20 p.m. Wednesday after posting a $35,000 bond. It was unclear on Wednesday if he had legal representation.
He has a court date set for 1:30 p.m. July 3.
‘Please do not do this. Stop doing this!’
In a four-page affidavit I received from KWPD on Wednesday, police officers said “Nicholas committed dating violence.”
The felony assault charge is for allegedly pulling the knife on the couple.
Galbo is also charged with two misdemeanor battery charges: one for pushing and punching his girlfriend, according to witnesses, and the other for putting his hands on the neck and shoulders of the woman who intervened.
The couple, a woman and a man who I’m not naming here, told police they saw Galbo and his girlfriend arguing at the corner of Greene and Simonton streets, according to the affidavit.
Galbo shoved his girlfriend, then hit her, prompting the woman passerby to call out, “Please do not do this,” police reported. “Stop doing this!”
Then Galbo turned on the passerby.
“He then came at me with hands at my throat,” the woman said.
‘Just a shiny star’
Galbo told police his argument with his girlfriend was only verbal, denying any physical altercation with her. And she told police the same thing.
As for the couple, Galbo said they attacked him and they stole his badge.
Galbo’s badge did fall to the ground during the incident, but the woman who picked it up said she didn’t know that it was a real badge.
“Just a shiny star,” she said. She handed it to someone, asking them to report it, so she could leave with her husband.
But Galbo, with his girlfriend, followed the couple to their home.
Both Galbo and his girlfriend appeared at the couple’s front door and demanded they return the badge.
Galbo appeared intoxicated, police reported, while later telling them he kicked the residence’s door “because he had tried to retrieve his badge.”
When told they didn’t have a badge, Galbo pulled the knife while his girlfriend, “told Nicholas to put the knife away and told Nicholas that this was a felony,” police reported.
Galbo said he pulled a knife — a folding knife with a 3-inch black handle and a 2-inch blade — because he said he heard the woman yell to her husband “to grab a gun.”
Police then told the couple what Galbo had said.
“They both stated that they never said anything about bringing a gun and that they never owned a gun,” police reported.
This is Galbo’s second arrest while employed as a law enforcement officer in the Keys.
Galbo was previously a Key West police officer. He was fired in December 2017 for violating department policies after being given a probationary period that followed his arrest for domestic violence.
In June 2015, he was a Key West police officer when he was arrested for misdemeanor battery after police reported he grabbed her arm and held her down during an argument at the home they’d been sharing for three months.
The woman told police she had packed her things and was leaving when Galbo grabbed her arm.
“[She] said the more she struggled, the angrier he became,” police wrote in the arrest report, and she ended up fleeing the apartment and hiding in some bushes outside until a friend came to pick her up.
But three months later, then-State Attorney Catherine Vogel’s office agreed to drop the charge and offer Galbo “pretrial intervention.”
The alleged victim had written a letter to the judge just one month after the arrest asking for the no-contact order to be lifted because she “never wanted it in the first place.”
She said the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office had “turned me away.”
“They told me if I tried to get it lifted, they would just object,” she wrote in the letter, in which the words “alleged victim” are printed next to her name at the bottom.
Galbo completed the program — including taking a “batterer’s intervention program,” paying $208 in court costs and remaining on probation with random urine screens — and the case was closed on Sept. 6, 2016, according to court records.
Galbo didn’t last at KWPD
In December 2017, then-KWPD Chief Donie Lee — who’s now a city commissioner — fired Galbo for policy violations.
“Just over a year ago, it was my intent to terminate your employment for criminal and department policy violations you committed,” Lee said in the termination letter I obtained Wednesday from KWPD.
But Galbo agreed to serve an 84-hour suspension without pay and serve a year on probation, the chief noted.
“Within several months of the probationary period expiration you continue to violate department policies,” Lee wrote. “It is my opinion that you have not or will not modify your conduct or performance as a police officer that is expected of members of this department.”
‘The white van then drove west on Greene St.’
Key West is indeed one small town.
On Wednesday morning downtown, the woman identified as Galbo’s girlfriend in Key West police reports “was not cooperative and kept insisting that she and Nicholas had only had a verbal argument, with no physical altercation,” according to the arrest affidavit.
But as an officer was speaking with her at that moment, a white minivan stopped in front of the two.
“An unknown male in the passenger’s seat informed me that he had seen [her] arguing with a guy and that the guy had put his hands on her,” police reported.
The alleged victim “immediately became belligerent towards the passenger in the van and yelled at him multiple times, telling him he needed to go,” police wrote. “The white van then drove west on Greene Street.”
A cop beating on their significant other? Such an unusual occurrence! … … …