RENO " A state hearing officer has determined that a University of Nevada, Reno police officer who was fired last year after a second alcohol-related incident should get his job back.
Kevin Youngflesh was arrested in 2004 on suspicion of drunken driving in an unmarked police car. He was fired in December after a fellow officer filed a complaint last summer over a 2006 incident.
The complaining officer said Youngflesh had called him at the campus police station asking for a ride home from Sparks because he had been drinking.
Bill Kockenmeister, the state personnel hearing officer, said the officer waited eight months after the incident before filing the complaint and that Youngflesh's actions did not warrant punishment as severe as dismissal.
"He wasn't on duty and it is a normal policy for an officer to pick up other police officers when they shouldn't be driving," said Kockenmeister, a lawyer hired by the state to conduct personnel hearings.
Kockenmeister's decision imposed a 30-day suspension, which Youngflesh has served, and gave him back pay for the time he would have been on the job after that suspension.
University President Milton Glick said he was surprised by the decision, but added administrators will read Kockenmeister's report before deciding whether the university will pursue further action.
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