Stay Resolute –
July 31, 2020 – Brogan was an addiction recovery specialist who had worked closely with former Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato in efforts to stem the county’s opioid crisis. That work followed his own close call with a heroin overdose about 10 years ago.
In an interview with the Asbury Park Press in 2015, Brogan recalled being brought back to consciousness with a shot of Naloxone nasal spray, the opioid reversal drug, after shooting up heroin in a bathroom in a drug-infested area of Philadelphia five years earlier. Brogan told The Press that despite coming within “inches and seconds” of death, he refused to go to the emergency room and shot up again about an hour later. While in the throes of addiction, Brogan also found himself with a criminal conviction that year after admitting he stole more than $17,000 from his clients at a mortgage company.
Brogan told the Press he had an epiphany in jail that Christmas, while thinking about his three daughters, and he decided to change his ways.
By 2015, Brogan was clean for five years and was working closely with law enforcement in Ocean and Monmouth counties, using his own life experiences to coach those in the throes of addiction away from their drug habits.
