By Sue Epstein and Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger

EDISON — Already facing charges of attempted murder for allegedly torching his supervisor's home in May, an Edison police officer was arrested again today on a host of unrelated counts that portray him as a public menace with a badge.

Patrolman Michael Dotro, 36, allegedly bought marijuana while in uniform, conspired to sell the drug, slashed a woman’s tires and illegally accessed the police department’s records database for personal use.

In a statement, Middlesex County acting Prosecutor Andrew Carey said Dotro also carried two prohibited weapons — a set of brass knuckles and a small club known as a blackjack — in his police duty bag while at work.

The alleged crimes took place before Dotro’s arrest in connection with the May 20 fire, which heavily damaged the Monroe Township home of Edison police Capt. Mark Anderko. Since then, Dotro has been suspended without pay. The 10-year veteran was freed from the Middlesex County jail in June after posting $2 million bail.

This morning, he returned there.

Carey said investigators arrested Dotro at his Manalapan home at 6:30 a.m. Bail was set at $340,000, with no option to post 10 percent, the prosecutor said.

Dotro faces 17 new charges, including four counts of official misconduct and one count of engaging in a pattern of official misconduct. Each count carries a maximum 10-year sentence.

Police Chief Thomas Bryan declined to comment, referring questions to the prosecutor’s office. Dotro’s lawyer, Robert Norton, did not return a call seeking comment.

In the earlier case, Dotro was charged with aggravated arson and five counts of attempted murder for allegedly setting the fire with a pair of gasoline-filled jugs.

Anderko, his wife, his children and his 92-year-old mother were asleep in the house at the time. All escaped unharmed.

Law enforcement officials previously told The Star-Ledger Dotro was angry at Anderko after the captain moved him from the night shift to days and ordered him to undergo a fitness-for-duty evaluation with a psychologist. That assessment, sparked by Dotro’s 11th excessive force complaint in a decade, took place four days before the fire.

The officer’s behavior had become a mounting concern to commanders in the department, the law enforcement officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

In addition to the excessive force complaints, Dotro amassed five other complaints and was suspected of stealing a police car as a prank in 2008, the officials said.

After the May arson attack, authorities looked deeper into his behavior.

According to Carey’s statement, Dotro bought marijuana last December from a person authorities did not identify. The officer was in uniform and on duty at the time of the purchase, Carey said.

After the fire, the prosecutor said, investigators found marijuana and a device to smoke it in Dotro’s duty bag.

In March of this year, Dotro slashed the tires of a car owned by an Edison woman, Carey said. The Star-Ledger previously reported Dotro was a suspect in the tire-slashing of a 25-year-old woman who worked in the department’s violations bureau. The woman had filed a complaint against Dotro, alleging the married patrolman was harassing her.

Dotro later accessed the department’s database to find the criminal mischief report on the incident, then illegally shared that information with another person, the prosecutor said. Carey did not identify the person or say what Dotro hoped to gain by sharing the information.

The investigation is continuing.

Star-Ledger staff writer Tom Haydon contributed to this report.

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