BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
NEW BRUNSWICK — An August trial date has been set in a case against former Edison Police Officer Michael Dotro, who is charged with attempted murder for allegedly setting fire to his police captain’s home in Monroe in 2013.
Dotro, with his Westfield-based attorney Robert Norton, appeared before Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez, sitting in New Brunswick, for a status hearing on March 17.
Norton said the state did not offer any plea agreement for consideration and that Dotro understands that, if the case were to go to trial, he faces 39 and a half years in prison, 15 years before he is eligible for parole.
Jimenez confirmed this with Dotro.
“Once you sign the pre-trial memorandum, you will learn your final sentence from me,” he told the former police officer.
Dotro, with his hands clasped together, nodded and answered “That’s correct.”
In May 2013, Dotro, who had been a nine-year veteran of the Edison Police Department, had been charged with five counts of attempted murder and one count of aggravated arson for allegedly setting fire to the Monroe home of his superior officer, Mark Anderko, who is now retired.
Anderko was home at the time, along with his wife, two children and his mother. No one was injured.
Along with the five counts of attempted murder, Dotro also faces charges of criminal mischief, unlawful possession of a destructive device used to set the fire, hindering his apprehension or prosecution by providing false information to investigators and retaliation for past official action of the police captain.
Dotro is also charged with two counts of having prohibited devices, possession of an imitation firearm and official misconduct for allegedly carrying brass knuckles, an imitation weapon, a small club known as a “blackjack,” a small quantity of marijuana and a device used to smoke marijuana, all of which were discovered in his police duty bag on May 23, 2013, according to the indictment.
The former police officer is also charged with unlawful access to a computer system and unlawful disclosure of computer system data in 2013 between March 17 and March 20. He is also accused of checking police records and notifying his wife of any reports on the slashing.
The lesser charges, which are also filed against his wife, Alycia Dotro, included official misconduct, conspiracy and criminal mischief on March 17, 2013 for slashing the tires of a car owned by an Edison woman.
Alycia Dotro appeared alongside with her attorney Richard E. Incremona, of Helmer, Conley & Kasselman, P.A. in Freehold.
Incremona said, as was the case with her husband, that the state did not offer any plea agreement for consideration and that she understands that she faces 21 and a half years in prison, five years before she is eligible for parole.
Jimenez confirmed this with Alycia Dotro and she nodded.
In November 2016, two more charges were levied against Dotro for conspiring to commit an aggravated arson on the home of another superior officer and a related count of official misconduct in April 2013, one month prior to the firebombing of Anderko’s home.
Jimenez set another status hearing on April 24 and a tentative trial date for August 14. The trial is expected to last two to three weeks.