Sugarcreek Twp.’s next police chief left the Dayton Police Department in 2008, less than a year after being suspended for giving the OK to nullify a city worker’s traffic citation.

Michael A. Brown, who comes to Sugarcreek Twp. from a job as deputy police chief in Riverside, is to be sworn in at 7 p.m. Tuesday at a trustees meeting.

Brown, a candidate for police chief in Dayton before Chief Richard Biehl was hired, agreed to retire, effective Oct. 3, 2008, in a settlement with the city. He was suspended after nullifying a citation issued on Dec. 12, 2007 to a legislative aide working for the city of Dayton.

“His departure is something we’ve looked at,” Sugarcreek Twp. Administrator Barry Tiffany said Friday. “The trustees are satisfied and are going to bring him in as our chief.”

In 2007, Brown was at a Christmas party where Larry Miller Jr., a legislative aide with the city of Dayton, was to serve as disc jockey. Brown was advised that patrol officers had stopped Miller, and nullified the ticket, according to reports. Brown’s lawyer said Brown was called after officers determined Miller worked for the city of Dayton.

Officers also determined Miller was driving without a valid license and had an unloaded gun in the car.

However Brown was not aware of the license suspension or a gun in Miller’s car when he nullified the ticket, according to reports. Nor was Brown, or the city, aware that Miller was sentenced to three years in prison for attempted aggravated murder for shooting a Central State University police officer during a robbery in 1989.

Miller was fired by the city on April 2, 2008, after failing to appear at a hearing on a sexual harassment complaint involving a city employee and for failing to notify his supervisor of his license suspension, according to his termination letter.

Biehl, at the time, called Brown’s conduct “egregious.”

Riverside officials also were aware of Brown’s departure from Dayton when, after a nationwide search, Brown was hired as deputy chief in Riverside on April 12, 2010, Riverside City Manager Bryan Chodkowski said Friday.

“We peeled the layers back on that onion,” Chodkowski said, noting the problem was the only one in his file from Brown’s 26 years in Dayton. Chodkowski said Riverside’s review also determined there were “other things going on” that contributed to Brown’s decision to retire from the Dayton department.

Brown “was very much a stand-up guy and provided great assistance in the department’s leadership,” Chodkowski added.

Brown replaces James Deaton, who resigned on Jan. 4. Brown is to be paid $80,000 a year.