There’s Now Time for This Sergeant

Mike O’Connor got promoted to sergeant Tuesday--some say 20 years late.

His father was former Sheriff Joseph O’Connor, who retired in 1971. For most deputies, having a dad at the top might have been good for a promotion or two. Not for Mike O’Connor.

The day before the election to choose his replacement, Joseph O’Connor endorsed his chief deputy sheriff, Warren Kanagy, over Capt. John Duffy.

As most everyone knows, Duffy scored an upset and served as sheriff for the next 20 years.

Mike O’Connor, who graduated first in his academy class, took the sergeant’s test in 1971. He placed sixth. Duffy chose 17 sergeants, and O’Connor was not among them.

O’Connor flunked the test in 1972. In 1973, he placed 10th. Duffy chose the top eight.

Through the next 17 years of John Duffy as sheriff, O’Connor chose not to take the test again.

“I never expected to be sergeant,” he said. “I gave up on it for a while.”

After Duffy retired late last year, Sheriff Jim Roache encouraged O’Connor to take the test again.

On Tuesday, Roache promoted him and eight others to sergeant.

With 28 years in the department, O’Connor was the longest-tenured department employee of the 20 people promoted Tuesday to sergeant, lieutenant, captain or commander.

When his name was called, the crowd of 300 in a conference room of the Marriott Hotel and Marina near Seaport Village broke into a loud, five-minute applause. Everyone stood and cheered. Many cried.

“Most of us were happier for Mike than we were for ourselves,” said Lynne Ziegler, who was promoted Tuesday to captain of the Lemon Grove sheriff’s substation. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the place. He had never gotten a fair shake because his father was Joe O’Connor.”

O’Connor’s new job will be to work with the reserve deputies in training, to develop background checks and to teach search and rescue.

His old job was to work with juvenile services out of the Lemon Grove station, where Roache worked as captain. O’Connor spent 12 years in juvenile services, working with troubled kids. He also spent time in the fugitive detail, in the Central Jail, on patrol, in narcotics and in community relations.

In what some say is characteristic of O’Connor, he refuses to take a swipe at Duffy.

“Let’s just say that I was a guy up for promotion 20 years ago, and things just didn’t work out,” he said. “There was a different sheriff then and a new sheriff now.”

Duffy could not be reached for comment.

All sheriffs have the discretion to promote whomever they choose from a list of hopefuls who have qualified by passing a test, O’Connor said, adding that his father probably passed over a number of annoyed applicants in the eight years he served as sheriff beginning in 1963.

In fact, Mike O’Connor praised Duffy for establishing a program for wayward kids a decade ago in which deputies such as him were permitted to take them to the mountains or other trips for a few days.

“Humility is a positive thing in this case,” O’Connor said of the past two decades. “If we work hard, we become better people, and what appears to be negative isn’t so negative after all. If you make it through the adversity, you realize the world is bigger than you and your problems. I have nothing to complain about.”

Joe O’Connor never got to see his son promoted Tuesday. He died in 1976 on his 59th birthday.

But Roache said it was a jubilant day nonetheless.

“It was really gratifying,” he said. “The entire audience clapped for five minutes, and it wasn’t at my prompting. Everyone in that room and in this department knows full well the quality of this man and that he was more than deserving.”

Last year, then-Sheriff-elect Roache said he personally “asked, cajoled and threatened (O’Connor) with bodily injury” to take the exam. O’Connor consented and scored well.

“I told him that he was doing a disservice to himself by not taking the exam and placing himself in the eligibility pool,” Roache said. “He has persevered. In my opinion, he should have been promoted a long time ago.”