Officer under misconduct probe plans to retire in Oct.

A Fairborn officer who was placed on paid administrative leave as the department conducted a misconduct complaint investigation plans to retire in October, records show.

Fairborn police opened an internal investigation into Officer William Karolyi about an outside complaint of alleged misconduct while he was offduty sometime between June and August 2020. The department received the complaint on July 1, and Karolyi was notified of the investigation on July 7.

Before the July 1 complaint, Karolyi had verbally self-reported the misconduct in July 2020 and at the time Police Chief Terry Bennington recommended a three-day suspension without pay after it was found that Karolyi was in violation of “unbecoming conduct,” according to police records.

“This charge resulted from off-duty conduct on behalf of Detective Karolyi that was not criminal in nature but reflected negatively on the employee and the department,” Bennington’s filing reads.

Pending the current investigation, Karolyi was placed on administrative leave on Aug. 20. Four days later, Karolyi informed Bennington he would remain on paid administrative leave until his retirement on Oct. 31.

Details of the current investigation were not made available as the investigation is ongoing. However, Sgt. Bill Titley of the Fairborn Police Department said the misconduct was related to his interactions with the public, not domestic in nature.

Karolyi resigned from the Kettering Police Department in 2015 after admitting to having an affair with a subordinate.

Karolyi was assigned to the ACE Task Force through September 2020. He received the Officer of the Year award from the Fairborn department in 2018. He worked for the Butler Twp. Police Department before joining Fairborn in 2016.