By Ron Leir
Observer Correspondent
EAST NEWARK –
He’s been a longtime West Hudson youth coach, a Hometown Hero, a ground zero volunteer. And now, he’s known as Police Sgt. Michael J. O’Donnell, having been installed in that rank by East Newark’s governing body on June 11.
O’Donnell, 43, had been serving as a police superior in an acting capacity, since Oct. 9, 2013, and now that he’s passed his probationary period, he’s been made permanent in the position.
Aside from the chief, O’Donnell is the only other superior officer in the borough’s small Police Department.
“He’s a hard worker, great with kids and good with people,” said his boss, Police Chief Anthony Monteiro. “In a community our size, a sergeant has a lot more responsibilities than in the larger departments, whether it’s making out reports or calling a judge for bail in the middle of the night. In this town, he is it.”
A 1989 Kearny High School graduate, O’Donnell served in the U.S. Navy about three and a half years as a non-combat veteran, mostly in Japan, completing with an E-3 pay grade.
He spent seven years as a corrections officer with the state Department of Corrections, assigned to East Jersey State Prison, Rahway.
It was during that period that O’Donnell volunteered with many other law enforcement agents in the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, for which the DOC honored him with an award for exceptional conduct. Nine years ago, O’Donnell successfully applied for a position as an officer with the East Newark Police Department and he’s never looked back. This is his sixth year running the Police Department’s DARE program, which makes kids aware of the dangers of substance abuse, in partnership with the borough Public School.
O’Donnell and Monteiro both received citations from Kearny Police Chief John Dowie for their arrest of four suspects wanted in connection with the armed robbery of an Exxon service station on Passaic Ave. on Feb. 28, 2007.
In 2008, O’Donnell was named a Hometown Hero in recognition of his police work and dedication to local youths.
For some time, he’s been an active supporter of area youth recreation programs as a coach and umpire. “I ran the Pop Warner program in Harrison for 16 years and I just got hired by the Harrison Board of Education as an assistant high school football coach,” O’Donnell said.
In 2005 the United Irish Association of West Hudson selected O’Donnell as deputy parade marshal for its annual St. Patrick’s Parade.
O’Donnell and his wife, the former Donna Gilmore, have four daughters – Christina, 23, who is graduating from Kean University; Briana, 20, completing her second year at Bergen County Community College; Amber, 16, a Harrison High School junior; and Haley, 11, a fifth-grader at East Newark Public School – and a son, Michael, 15, a Harrison High freshman.
