Panel: Fired Trooper Can't Get His Job Back

The state Personnel Commission on Friday rejected a reinstatement appeal from a former Highway Patrol trooper who was fired for misconduct.

Trooper Monty Poarch, who was fired in 2003 for having sex in his patrol car and at his trooper station, had asked the commission to reinstate him after an administrative law judge ruled last fall that Poarch had been unjustly fired.

Judge Melissa Owens had ordered the Highway Patrol to reinstate Poarch, now a lieutenant with the sheriff's department in Caldwell County, and provide him with back pay. She ruled that the patrol was inconsistent in its discipline of trooper misconduct, so firing Poarch for egregious conduct was unwarranted.

The Highway Patrol fought Owens' ruling, which sent the case to the Personnel Commission.

Poarch's case was among several troubling incidents for the Highway Patrol in recent months. Several troopers have been fired for offenses ranging from targeting young women for late-night traffic stops to abusing a patrol dog.