Dayton police sergeant on leave

A longtime Dayton police sergeant is on paid leave.

Sgt. Joseph Setty, 41, was “relieved of duty” Tuesday due to allegations of misconduct, and a “show-cause” hearing was held the following afternoon at the public safety building, according to city records.

“After reviewing the available facts in this matter, and the information presented at the hearing, effective immediately, you are being placed on leave with benefits status. You will remain on leave with benefits until otherwise advised,” reads a letter to Setty signed by Lt. Col. Eric Henderson, deputy director and assistant chief of the Dayton Police

Department.

The letter gives no indication of the specific allegations against Setty, who was promoted to the rank of sergeant in February 2016.

On Wednesday — the same day Setty was placed on paid leave — Dayton police announced that an unnamed officer was on paid administrative leave pending a state criminal investigation. Dayton police did not respond late Friday when asked to confirm whether Setty was the one under criminal investigation.

“Due to the nature of the allegations, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been contacted to conduct an independent investigation,” department officials said in that Wednesday statement, which did not list the specific allegations.

Setty’s Dayton police personnel file includes nearly a dozen written commendations over the past 11 years. The most recent one was last fall at Liberty High School, for working with another DPD officer to wrestle to the ground a former student who came onto school grounds and had a loaded gun in his bag.

Setty and two other officers were involved in a shooting in December 2020 that resulted in the death of Donald Saunders, 37, after police responded to a domestic violence call. Saunders was shot at least four times after he pointed a gun at Setty’s chest at an apartment in the 1700 block of Rangeley Avenue, according to a commendation.