EDISON — Former Edison police officer Michael A. Dotro will have to serve 17 years in state prison before becoming eligible for parole as part of a plea deal with the state for fire bombing the Monroe home of his superior officer in 2013 and a whole host of other pending indictments that were levied against him.
On the eve of one of two pending trials, Dotro, 40, of Manalapan, admitted to one count of attempted murder in the first degree and one count of arson in the second degree in Middlesex County Superior Court on Aug. 21, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey.
The former officer also pleaded guilty to one count of official misconduct in the second degree in connection with a trial that had commenced last week.
In the official misconduct case, Dotro was charged with unlawful access to a computer system and unlawful disclosure of computer system data in 2013 between March 17 and March 20. He was also accused of checking police records and notifying his wife, Alycia, 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, Carey said. 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 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.
Under a plea agreement reached with Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Russell Curley, Dotro will be sentenced to a prison term of 20 years subject to the No Early Release Act. As such, Dotro will have to serve 17 years in New Jersey State Prison before becoming eligible for parole.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in New Brunswick by Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez on December 7.
Previously Dotro had forfeited his position as a police officer as part of a guilty plea in another case in September 2016.
The former officer had pleaded guilty to a count of conspiracy for his involvement 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.
Through the investigation of the aggravated arson case, it revealed the case that involved the North Brunswick police officer.
Dotro was charged during an extensive investigation by the Detective Bureau of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, Detective Donald Heck and Detective Christopher Pennisi.
Edison Police Chief Thomas Bryan declined to comment on the plea deal made for one his former officers.
