JANUARY 23, 2016, 9:55 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 2016, 9:58 PM
BY JEAN RIMBACH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Gurbir Grewal had an impressive position in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark when he agreed to take on what could very well be a temporary job as Bergen County’s prosecutor, the high-profile, high-stakes seat at the top of the county’s law-enforcement pyramid.
He says he was motivated in large part by the opportunity to make a difference in the community where he resides. “You actually see what you’re working on sort of manifest itself in the community,” said the 42-year-old Glen Rock resident, during an interview three weeks after his appointment as acting prosecutor. “You’re able to make a difference more immediately.”
But the married father of three — who put battling the heroin epidemic and quality-of-life crimes as top priorities — said there was also another, more personal motive: He hopes to make a difference in the lives of people, like himself, who are members of the Sikh religion.
“The other part of why I wanted to do this — and one of the reasons why I wanted to do public service in the first place — is that I come from a background where people are always taught to be good doctors and good engineers and good professionals and not ever steered toward public service,” he said last week. “And I think because of that there are misunderstandings of who Sikhs are and people who look like me, where they come from, and what they might believe because they’re never sort of seen in those front-line public service jobs.”
Grewal, who speaks Punjabi and Hindi, is the first South Asian and the first Sikh to occupy the office. But that’s just one piece of the picture emerging of the county’s first new prosecutor in 14 years, replacing John Molinelli.
