A former State Highway Patrol sergeant fired for kicking his police dog during training should get his job back, the State Personnel Commission said today.

The commission found that the patrol had failed to prove that Sgt. Charles L. Jones' actions constituted personal misconduct, or that he had abused the dog, Ricoh. Jones should also receive back pay, the commission said.

A 12-year veteran of the patrol, Jones was dismissed in September 2007 after a video of him kicking Ricoh, then a 7-year-old Belgian Malinois, had surfaced, Dan Kane reports. The patrol initially planned to discipline him with a lesser penalty, but dismissed him after the governor's office got involved.

Jones fought the dismissal at an administrative hearing in April, saying he was only following training methods other troopers had used. More than a dozen troopers testified and spoke of  rough obedience techniques such as swinging or hanging dogs by their leads, shocking them with stun guns and throwing rock-filled bottles at them. Patrol policies provided little guidance in training techniques.

Senior Administrative Law Judge Fred G. Morrison sided with Jones, saying the governor's office had placed undue pressure on the patrol to fire Jones. The commission did not agree with that finding.

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A former State Ethics Commission employee who was fired after raising concerns about possible preferential treatment to Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue filed a whistleblower lawsuit in state Superior Court today.

Amanda Thaxton, an office assistant, said the firing has hit her hard financially and she wants a judge to reinstate her immediately, Dan Kane reports. She said in the suit that she is also seeking an award of triple damages — as the state's whistleblower law allows — plus legal fees for being fired for reporting her concerns to the Office of the State Auditor and to the State Personnel Commission.

"This was this girl's first job out of college," said her lawyer, Michael C. Byrne of Raleigh. "She comes in from Elon University, gets a job from the state and then is abruptly fired for cooperating and engaging in protected activity. That's just not right."

Perry Newson, the commission's executive director, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He has said that Thaxton, 24, was not fired in retaliation.

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An administrative law judge has determined that an N.C. Highway Patrol captain never intended to make a racial remark that came out inadvertently and therefore should not have been suspended for five days.

Capt. Norman Goering was disciplined after a photo shoot of troopers in July 2007 in which he had said "black in back." He immediately apologized for the remark, saying that he had intended to say "tall in back" but tripped over his words, Dan Kane reports.

A lieutenant heard the remark and reported it, leading to an internal investigation. The investigation initially led to Goering's demotion to lieutenant, but then he was reinstated with the five-day suspension.

Administrative Law Judge Shannon Joseph determined after a hearing that no one had found Goering's remark to be intentional, and that the captain had an "exemplary" 26-year-history with the patrol. She said he should receive pay or benefits that were lost as a result of the suspension, and reasonable legal fees.

The State Personnel Commission will decide whether to accept the judge's findings.

A state trooper fired for having sex in a Highway Patrol car and office asked the State Personnel Commission today to reinstate him because other troopers who engaged in similar or worse behavior are still on the force.

Monty Steven Poarch, a trooper for 18 years, was fired in 2003. His attempt to get his job back have rocked the patrol after a state administrative law judge found that he should have his job back despite behavior egregious enough to get him fired, Dan Kane reports.

The case exposed roughly two dozen examples of troopers misbehaving, including those who had extramarital affairs either on or off duty, a trooper who had repeatedly threatened to kill his wife, and a trooper who had exposed himself while in uniform in his patrol car.

Those officers remained on the force.

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