Sheriff Armando Fontoura’s office holds award ceremony for those who went above and beyond

The Essex County Sheriff’s Office (ECSO) held a ceremony on September 29, 2022 with a presentation of awards to those officers who went above and beyond. 

At the ceremony, Sheriff Fontoura awarded the Medal of Honor to the members of the Tactical Response Team (TRT), who on July 8, 2021, attempted to execute a high-risk search warrant for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office. The target had a long criminal record and was known to possess weapons. As the team approached the target, he fired numerous rounds at the officers. The target barricaded himself within the residence for 31 hours and taunted the officers by firing rounds into the floor as they attempted to negotiate with him. With the assistance of the Newark PD, the target was subsequently arrested, ending the standoff. 

The following officers received the Medal of Honor: Sgt. Michael Ca-podanno, Sgt. Christo-pher Bozios, Sgt. Sergio Tavares, Sgt. Dennis Kihl-berg (retired), Det. Ro-bert Liput, Det. Thomas Bender, Det. Daryl John-son, Det. Giovanni Mar-tino, Det. Noel Mendez, Det. Albert Pensamiento, Det. Richardo Rickards, Det. Larry Taylor, Det. Jose Torres, Officer Christian Megaro, Officer Richard Alberto, Officer Zachary Felmley, Officer Ibn Holman, Officer David Kong, Officer Nicholas Mattia, Officer David Mattia, Officer Alejandro Madera, and Officer Giovanni Olivero.

Detective John Patino, a Juvenile Liaison Officer in the Patrol Division, and a member of the Youth Service Commis-sion, received the Officer of the Year Award for the ECSO Department for being instrumental in helping to create the ECSO Statehouse Adjust-ment Program. 

Sheriff Fontoura presented the Unit Citation Award to the Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI). ECSO Captain Matthew Goldrick accepted the award on behalf of BCI, which faced one of the biggest changes in decades — the beginning of the end of the State Police National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system, and the migration to and implementation of its replacement, eAgent 2.0.