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NEW JERSEY COPS ■ DECEMBER 2014
2014 Valor Awards – Bronze Medal of Valor
Thoughts, prayers and gratitude
Valor awards give Walker a chance to tell what’s on his mind
Tony Wieners, it was so good to know they
When Joseph Walker stepped up to accept his
believed in me and that I was being treated
Bronze Medal of Valor, the prolonged ovation and
unjustly,” he confided. “My Local (232) was fanseries of Way-To-Go-Joes that came from the
tastic. President Will Caicedo, Delegate Matt
crowd provided a culmination. Maybe not the
Stambuli and those guys were there nonstop.
culmination for the Hudson County Prosecutor’s
They didn’t let a day go by when they didn’t call
Office Local 232 Detective exonerated on murder
and check on me to let me know they are still
charges stemming from that off-duty roadside
working on this.”
shooting in Maryland in 2013. But a culmination
For the past 16 months, Walker has kept himnonetheless.
self busy and distracted taking care of his family.
“It was a bit overwhelming, but overwhelming
He drives his kids to school. He cleans the house
in a good way,” said Walker, who is currently on
and cooks dinner. He is happy now anticipating
paid leave and waiting to get back to his job with
a return to normalcy, but that smile was there for
the Insurance Fraud Unit. “Throughout the
Detective Joseph Walker
all the PBA to see at the Valor Awards because, for
course of this ordeal, I heard from guys or guys
Hudson County
a long time, he thought he might never see this
came up to me to say, ‘We’re behind you’ and ‘You
Prosecutor’s Office
night, let alone the day when he was acquitted.
did the right thing.’ But to hear everybody at the
Local 232
“Yes, I did lose faith,” Walker responded to the
same time acknowledge they were behind you,
question he knows many have been waiting to
that they are behind you like that, made me want
ask. “A lot of days, I just thought I was in a countdown to going to
to go to each and every person and say thank you.”
prison. Holidays and my kids’ birthdays should have been the best
Standing up there, flashing that infectious smile, nodding his
days, but they were the worst. I had to force a smile on my face, even
head to the beat of the music sparked an obvious electricity into the
though inside I’m thinking this could be the last birthday I celebrate,
Valor Awards. And perhaps it also ignited a curiosity as to why this
the last time I watch