Ross Township Commissioners Address Investigation Over Sergeant Accused Of Misconduct
ROSS TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) -- Controversy about how the Ross Township police chief handled allegations made against a police sergeant was addressed by the Ross Township Board of Commissioners.
During Tuesday night's meeting, Ross Township Commission President Dan DeMarco said a lot of inaccurate information is spreading about how Ross Township Police Chief Joseph Ley handled the alleged Jan. 26 incident in the police station.
Sergeant Joseph Serowik was accused of showing officers video from an investigation into a North Hills High School student who was making videos with sexual content and sending them to other students.
"Any allegation that Chief Ley failed to promptly investigate the allegations is false. He prepared a report regarding the allegations in the letter and other witness information he received and presented a report to the board of commissioners during an executive session," DeMarco said.
The police union said on Monday that 27 officers voted in favor of a "no confidence" vote in the chief's leadership. Six officers voted for confidence in the chief. The Executive Board of the Ross Township Police Association said in a release, "Instead of appropriately addressing this serious matter, Chief Ley was adversarial with our member who reported the misconduct. It is suspected that this matter was not handled with the urgency it required because the officer accused of the misconduct is aligned with Chief Ley."
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DeMarco said that Chief Ley initiated an investigation on the day of the alleged incident. Chief Ley attended Tuesday's commission meeting, and he said he had no comment.
"An investigation was initiated by Chief of Police Joseph Ley on that same day, instructing a department detective to begin interviewing witnesses. Chief Ley met directly with that detective and a key witness on Jan. 27," he said.
KDKA learned last week that the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General opened an investigation.
"Based on the severity of the allegations and the fact that they involved a Ross Police sergeant, on Jan. 31 the board of commissioners instructed the township manager in executive session to proceed to ask an outside law enforcement agency to investigate the allegations. The township manager followed through with those instructions and reached out to the Office of the District Attorney of Allegheny County on Feb. 1st. Thereafter, the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General stepped in and opened an independent investigation," DeMarco said.
The commissioners are now waiting for the investigation report from the AG's office.
"Unfortunately, inaccurate information has been disseminated through the media and social media about this matter because not all the facts have yet been included to accurately determine the truth and, therefore, if any potential, appropriate action should be taken by the board of commissioners and/or the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General," DeMarco said.
He said information about any discipline or the employment status of a police officer will not be provided, because it is township policy to not discuss personnel matters with the public.
The "no confidence" vote against Chief Ley is the second "no confidence" vote that the police union has submitted to commissioners. The union claims working conditions have only gotten worse since the first vote.
