South Orange Police Officers Get Promoted At Trustees Meeting – TAPinto.net
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ – Put the community first.
Then the South Orange Police Department.
And third yourself.
This was advice that South Orange Police Chief Kyle Kroll gave the officers on Monday night who were up for promotions or joining the department for the first time.
“You may drive around in a black and white vehicle, but the majority of the things you do fall into the gray,” Kroll said. “Be cognizant of those gray moments. That’s where the town, the community, the neighbors and the schoolchildren will be judging you.
“As you go forward in your careers, remember that,” Kroll said.
Monday marked the first large promotional ceremony for the department in a while, a move to boost the department’s staffing since it has been struggling with staffing shortages.
In addition to promotions and swearing in new officers, two officers moved from the patrol division to the detective bureau. The two officers who were promoted to sergeant were formerly detectives. Zaybem Bryant is being moved into a detective role. Frank Ariemma is being moved to the detective bureau too.
“This is a big night for us,” Kroll said. “There are a lot of changes.”
The auditorium in SOPAC was a packed room that night for the Board of Trustees meeting as people clapped and cheered.
Families watched as their husbands and fathers were promoted within the South Orange Police Department.
“The caliber of people who were promoted are simply exceptional in their commitment to South Orange, in their commitment to professional development, and their understanding of the gray area,” said Village President Sheena Collum, noting that the officers went through a rigorous interviewing process.
Five officers were promoted including Stephen Dolinac to captain; Daniel Grasso and Ernesto Morillo to lieutenant, and Michael Cucciniello and Mark Wilkins to sergeant.
Hipilito Felix and John Pak were sworn in as officers.
“Thank you to the families,” said Board Trustee Deborah Davis Ford. “Every day they go out, you don’t know if they’re going to come home. South Orange will be stronger.”
Who are the officers?
Stephen Dolinak, promoted to captain
Dolinak grew up in Maplewood. He graduated from Columbia High School in 1997 and earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers in 2001. Dolinak began his police career in 2003 at the Essex County Police Academy. In 2010, he was promoted to sergeant in South Orange followed by a promotion to lieutenant in 2015. He has many family members who have lived in South Orange for 60-plus years. He enjoyed going to former local restaurants in town such as Cryan’s Beef & Ale House and the Stuft Shirt. Dolinak met his wife Amy in South Orange and has two sons, Andrew and James who attend school in the district.
Daniel Grasso, promoted to lieutenant
Grasso grew up in South Orange and attended Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Elementary School. He attended Seton Hall Prep High School and Seton Hall University but left college early to start a corner store at the intersection of Irvington Avenue and Ward Place. Grasso befriended many of the police officers while running the store and decided that a career in public service was right for him. Grasso started his career as a police dispatcher and was eventually hired as a police officer. He is a 20-year veteran of the police department and was promoted to the position of police sergeant in 2015. Married to his wife Alayna, he has a 4-month-old boy named Alexander who is his greatest joy.
Ernesto Morillo, promoted to lieutenant
Morillo is originally from Queens, N.Y. and relocated to South Orange in 1987. He was the youngest of five children and the only son to Ernesto and Elena Morillo. He is the first-generation child of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. His wife of 14 years Janice Morillo and together they have three children Ernesto, Sophia and Alexia. Ernesto started his career in law enforcement in 1996 as an Essex County Corrections officer. He then joined the South Orange Police Department in 2005. Morillo was a graduate of Farleigh Dickinson University, where he recently received a master’s in public administration. He has been a member of the Sampson Mesonic Lodge No. 66 and is also a member of the Alpha Alpha Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, both in Newark.
Michael Cucciniello, promoted to sergeant
Cucciniello joined the South Orange Police Department in 2000. During most of his years with the department, Cucciniello worked the midnight shift. He worked as patrol, in the bike squad, and more recently, in the detective bureau. He served as treasurer and vice president of the PBA and assisted with the Junior Police Academy for the last several years. Cucciniello grew up in South Orange with his parents Lynn and Jay and his brother Robert. He attended Our Lady of Sorrows Elementary School and Seton Hall Prep before becoming a police officer. Cucciniello was employed with Continental Airlines for five years. He was a Maplewood Fire Reserve and worked in his grandfather’s restaurant. Cucciniello was married to Nicole for 17 years and they have three children Matthew, Danielle and Emily.
Mark Wilkins, promoted to sergeant
Wilkins grew up in East Orange where he attended St. Joseph’s Catholic High School, played basketball and Pop Warner football. His parents moved to Maplewood in 1998 and currently reside there. He went to Columbia High School from 2000 to 2004 and was a three-year varsity letterman in football and track-and-field as well as a team captain. He played football at Cheyney University in Pennsylvania where he was nominated by Pizza Hut for Player of the Week. After working as a security guard at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston for seven years, he made it to the rank of lieutenant there and security at Cryan’s Beef and & House, which led him to want to become a police officer. He moved to South Orange and applied to be a 9-1-1 dispatcher. From there, he moved through the ranks in the department.
John Pak, sworn in as an officer
Pak grew up in Garwood and currently lives in Cranford. Before coming to the South Orange Police Department, Pak worked for the Union County Sheriff’s Officer and before that worked for the Union County Department of Corrections.
Hipilito Felix, sworn in as an officer
Felix was appointed as an officer with the South Orange Police Department in February 2019. He started as a police officer in Newark in 2015. He was born in 1989 in Benoy, Dominican Republic. His family migrated to the United States in the late 1990s when he was five years old to Newark, N.J. When he was 9, he and his family moved back to the Dominican Republic and returned back to the United States when he was 13. Felix attended Newark Tech Vocational High School and earned a high school diploma. Felix continued his education at Essex County College where he earned an associate degree in criminal justice. He was later accepted into Rutgers’s School of Criminal Justice, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Felix is the first generation in his family to ever complete college. Felix currently lives in Bloomfield. He is engaged to his fiancée Anna. They have a two-year-old son and are expected a baby girl this summer.
*Editor’s Note: The biographical information is from the South Orange Police Department.