NEW BRUNSWICK — It was the tale of two Michael Dotros — one who could do his job as an Edison police officer, and one much more sinister.
Up until his plea deal on Aug. 21, Assistant Prosecutor Russell Curley said Dotro, 40, of Manalapan, couldn’t control his “demons” over the course of the past five years.
“The demons kept coming out and coming out in the most destructive way,” he said, while he also offered that no one was immune to Dotro’s wrath of revenge.
Dotro, handcuffed and in green prison clothing, appeared before Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Pedro J. Jimenez, Jr. for sentencing on Sept. 7. When asked if he would like to say anything before the court, Dotro said he did not have anything to say at this time.
His wife Alycia Dotro, who was admitted into a probationary program known as PreTrial Intervention on Aug. 22 for her role in helping her husband, was present in the courtroom.
She had remained by her husband’s side every step of the way leading up to the jury trial of one of the two pending cases in Middlesex County Superior Court against both of them.
However, at the sentencing, Alycia Dotro stood up and pointed at her husband, calling him “a monster, a manipulative monster” before a sheriff’s officer had to calm her down.
Jimenez sentenced Dotro to serve 20 years in a New Jersey state prison subject to the No Early Release Act, which was part of the plea agreement reached with Curley.
Dotro will have to serve 17 years before becoming eligible for parole. In addition, Jimenez ordered restraining orders to protect all the victims involved.
Jimenez said Dotro’s criminal record spans almost two decades. Since 1998, prior to becoming a police officer, Dotro had 14 documented contacts already with the criminal justice system.
“[Dotro] still made the force [in 2003],” he said.
While a member of the Edison Police Department, the number of violations against Dotro doubled to 36 additional contacts with the criminal justice system.
“In the end, Dotro has had 40 [guilty] convictions in municipal court, 18 of which occurred prior to being a police officer and the remaining 22 while he was a police officer,” Jimenez said, adding that the convictions do not account for the five additional Superior Court convictions that he was being sentenced for.
Jimenez said Dotro took his position as a police officer and turned it into something like a nightmarish storyline.
“The last few years that [Dotro] served in the Edison Police Department has been a complete fraud as he’s engaged in activities completely apathetical with the duties as an Edison police officer,” Jimenez said. “The [attorneys] have spoken of two Michael Dotros … there are two faces to him, a face of fraud and the other face, painted by the state and verified by his guilty pleas, a sinister personality in his truest form, who only cares about moving his agenda forward and no one else’s.”
Jimenez said Dotro was the primary mover on his retaliation agenda that dragged down other officers and essentially destroyed his wife’s life. The Edison Police Department as a whole, he said, has been branded for this badge of suspicion by Dotro’s misconduct, which, he said, will continue for some time.
“[Dotro] was sworn to uphold the law, but he disregarded that in its entirety,” he said.
In his plea agreement, Dotro admitted to one count of attempted murder in the first degree and one count of arson in the second degree.
Dotro also pleaded guilty to one count of official misconduct in the second degree in connection with a trial that had commenced on Aug. 15.
In the official misconduct case, Dotro was charged with unlawful access to a computer system and unlawful disclosure of computer system data March 17-20, 2013. He is also accused of checking police records and notifying his wife of any reports on the incident of slashing the tires of a car owned by an Edison woman.
It was brought out in a pre-trial hearing in July that the tire slashing incident occurred after Dotro ended an affair with the woman.
Lastly, Dotro pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to tamper with a witness in the third degree in that same case. Dotro had been charged with the witness tampering on Aug. 17.
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 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.
Anderko and his wife were in the courtroom during Dotro’s sentencing. They declined to make a statement in court.
Along with the five counts of attempted murder, Dotro faced 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 forfeited his position as a police officer in September of 2016 as part of a guilty plea in another case. He pleaded guilty to a count of conspiracy for his involvement with three other officers in attempting to harass and humiliate a North Brunswick police officer in 2012 after he failed to show leniency for a drunken driving charge that he issued to a friend of Dotro.
In January, Dotro was sentenced to two years’ probation for the case.
Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey said his office is satisfied with Jimenez’s sentencing.
“We are satisfied now that Michael Dotro has been convicted and sentenced to 20 years incarceration for crimes which all of our many honorable police officers find repugnant,” Carey said. “Over the past few years, the Prosecutor’s Office, along with Edison Police Chief Thomas Bryan, and members of Edison Police Department, have worked diligently to remove the cancerous officers from the ranks of the department.”
As a result, Carey said, police officers can proudly wear the Edison police shield as they protect and serve all members of the public.
“Our residents can be confident that the Edison Police Department is functioning effectively and with integrity,” he said.
Dotro’s attorney, Robert Norton of Westfield, told the judge the man portrayed by Curley is different from the man he has represented for four years.
Norton noted that before the plea deal in the case involving the North Brunswick police officer, there was a list of more than 25 character witnesses called on behalf of Dotro.
“Everyone spoke highly of him, a man willing to help,” he said. “[Dotro] has been a cooperative, kind client. He was a man who ran a successful restaurant and a man who bought houses and fixed them up.”
After the sentencing, Norton said the case is finally resolved.
“We are not happy with the plea bargain, but we can live with what transpired today,” he said.
Dotro is also to serve five years of supervised parole once released from state prison.
The former police officer was charged during an extensive investigation by the Detective Bureau of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office led by Detective Donald Heck and Detective Christopher Pennisi.
Contact Kathy Chang at [email protected].