Seven new cops, six of whom will go the academy, one of whom is already trained — three women, four men — were hired by the Town of Kearny at the regular meeting of the Mayor and Town Council Tuesday, June 25. Most of the new officers are bilingual and one is trilingual.
The new officers will be paid a starting salary of just under $50K a year. The already-trained officer will make just over $69K a year.
In order of Civil Service list rank, the new officers are:
n Juan Cadiz, 27, of Kearny, who is currently a supervisor at Extech who oversees 40 employees.
n Katherine Henriquez, 33, of Kearny, who is an online business owner who has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Rutgers University.
n Deaglan Walsh, 31, of Kearny, a Newark police officer since 2021, who was an NJIT security guard before that. He saved woman attempting suicide by pulling her from a balcony ledge while working at the Newark PD, among other commendable accomplishments.
n Jocelyn Cazares, 25, of Newark, who works at Amazon Sortation Center, and has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Berkeley College. She previously interned for a law firm and has extensive volunteer experience.
n Khonsura Allen, 24, of Kearny, is an associate at Trade Supply Group who attended William Paterson University.
n Christopher Aguilar, 28, of Kearny, works for Kearny Bank as digital banking representative for over six years, and just graduated with an associate degree in criminal justice from Essex Community College.
n Melissa Toth, 21, of Harrison, completed 4-year bachelor’s degree in criminal justice in only three years at Caldwell University while playing Division II soccer and maintaining a 3.94 GPA. She also works at CVS in Kearny, part-time.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.