He was a priest. Then he became a cop. Now he's at the head of the class in law school.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mount Prospect police Sgt. Mike Angarola was at his Vernon Hills home, scrolling through Netflix's infinite options, when a thought occurred to him.

“Now would be a good time to work toward a law degree instead of watching these shows,” he said to his wife, Ivonne.

“Let's do it,” she said.

Three years later, the former priest turned cop turned burgeoning attorney is first in his class at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law, where he recently was named editor-in-chief of the UIC Law Review.

This summer, he'll take a leave of absence from the police department to work as a summer associate at Kirkland & Ellis, an elite, international law firm headquartered in Chicago. He'll return to UIC in the fall to complete his final year of law school. After that, who knows?

“I'm finally figuring out what to do with my life,” jokes Angarola, who having pursued two classical academic disciplines — theology and law — insists he has no intention of pursuing a third: medicine. But friends and colleagues believe if he did, he'd succeed at that, too.

“Once he sets his mind to something, you can't stop him,” said Mount Prospect Police Chief Michael Eterno. “He's like an arrow to the target.”

Angarola, 45, says juggling law school, police duties and family poses challenges he meets thanks to the support of his wife and daughters.

“We all jumped into this with the full knowledge of what we were in for. During the school semester I'm going nonstop. There's no day off,” said Angarola, who works weekends so he can attend day and night classes.

With limited time together, the Angarola family takes full advantage of breaks.

“When we're off, we're together,” he said. “We know we're on a common mission. That's what keeps us going.”

A life of service

Angarola grew up in a family that embraced public service and revered the law. His father, who died when Angarola was 10, served as an assistant Cook County state's attorney under Richard M. Daley. His adoptive father also was an attorney.

Angarola spent part of his childhood in Morton Grove and participated in the Skokie Police Department's youth explorer program. In college, he chose a different path, studying engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign until his mother's cancer diagnosis prompted him to consider a new career.

“It was a tough time, and I was looking for meaning,” said Angarola, who, having grown up “nominally Catholic,” sought spiritual guidance at the St. John's Catholic Newman Center, which ministers to college students.

It was there that he began to seriously consider the priesthood. After graduation, he attended Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Maryland. Ordained in 2005, the then-27-year-old was assigned to a parish in the Peoria Diocese, where he led a youth group and counseled congregants.

“Because I had gone through tragedy losing my parents so young, I felt I was fulfilling my calling serving people going through difficult times,” he said.

Ultimately, however, the clergy wasn't the right fit for Angarola. Leaving the priesthood, he worked as a real estate agent and served for a year as a Cook County state's attorney victim advocate at Chicago's George N. Leighton Criminal Court Building.

Considering again how to best serve the public, he thought about law enforcement.

“I thought this was the direction I need to go,” he said. “I started doing push-ups and situps. I did more running. I got in shape and applied for police jobs.”

Impressed by Mount Prospect, he attended an orientation at Prospect High School, where then-Police Chief John Dahlberg informed 350 candidates they were vying for three openings.

“In my mind I thought: I'm going to be one of those three,” Angarola said. “And I was.”

Initially assigned to patrol, mostly on the midnight shift, he specialized in traffic and DUI enforcement. Aware of his experience counseling the bereaved, his supervisors also relied on him to handle death notifications. Eight years later, in 2016, he became a detective.

“That was a dream of mine, to work on those bigger cases,” Angarola said.

In February 2018, he was part of the team that investigated the fatal shooting of Vladimir Esquivel, 29, whose body was found in a burned-out car in a parking lot. A painstaking investigation led to the arrest and conviction of Paul Zalewski, who was sentenced last year to 65 years in prison.

Promoted to sergeant that same year, he currently serves as commander of the Serious Traffic Accident Reconstruction team, a division of the Major Case Assistance Team, in addition to other duties. Angarola credits his fellow officers and supervisors for his professional and academic success.

“They've been very accommodating,” he said, singling out Eterno and Village Manager Michael Cassady for their support.

There aren't many people capable of attending law school, maintaining a 40-hour workweek and raising a family, Eterno said.

“I don't know how he does it, but he does it.”

Officer and attorney

Angarola began law school with modest ambitions: Pass his classes and get his degree. He never imagined he'd be first in his class or the law review's editor-in-chief.

But those around him already knew.

“Mike is pretty methodical in his approach to everything,” Eterno said. “He takes his time ... really pieces things together in his mind before forming opinions or making judgments,” all of which are prized qualities in an attorney.

Before starting law school, Angarola recalled that Maria McCarthy, a former assistant Cook County state's attorney and Rolling Meadows courthouse supervisor, predicted he'd become law review editor.

“She believed in my capacity before I did,” said Angarola, who learned something about himself after taking on the challenge of law school.

“I'm one of those law nerds who really loves law school,” he said, laughing. “I'm enjoying every class.”

No surprise there. Angarola has found satisfaction in each of his roles.

Recalling a police case where a young girl was threatening to hurt herself, he said he drew on his experience with his own daughters. He asked the girl if she liked dogs and offered to show her photos of his dogs if she agreed to put down her knife.

“And that was it,” he said. “I gave her a hug and showed her pictures. It all worked out happily.”