The Nevada Sagebrush

The University of Nevada, Reno Police Department must rehire a police sergeant who is seeking a grand jury investigation into corruption at the university and suing multiple officials in the police department, a state hearing officer ruled Friday.

Sgt. Lane Grow was fired in May after being arrested and charged with four misdemeanor vehicle registration violations. Grow said the hearing officer reinstated him with full back pay and benefits in part because those four violations, coupled with a clean personnel file, didn’t warrant outright dismissal.

“I was very appreciative,” Grow, a 16-year veteran of UNRPD, said. “I was receiving a little vindication for all that I’ve been going through.”

Grow insists his firing — a year after he and three other former and current UNR employees submitted a pile of documents half an inch thick detailing allegations of corruption at UNR — was retaliation.

UNR officials said they would not comment because it is a personnel issue.

Grow has not worked since September 2008, when he was placed on administrative leave with pay while he awaited trial on the misdemeanors (He was fired after a judge found him guilty in May. Grow said he is appealing the conviction). He said the five-and-a-half months without work since his firing caused his house to go into foreclosure. He’s not sure if the ruling came in time to save it.

“I would have rather been working than dealing with all of these headaches,” he said.

He has instead focused his attentions — along with former soccer coach Terri Patraw, former professor Hussein S. Hussein and current professor Richard Schweickert — on trying to persuade a Washoe County District Judge to assemble a grand jury to investigate the allegations of corruption at UNR. One of the claims is that UNRPD is used as a “private police force.”

Grow said he forwarded the ruling to the judge tasked with deciding whether to assemble a grand jury or not. Jane Tors, university spokeswoman, said she did not see a connection between the corruption allegations and Grow’s firing and rehiring.

Grow’s complaints against UNRPD are longstanding. He first went public with a lawsuit in the spring of 2007. In it, he alleged UNRPD Director Adam Garcia protected alcoholics at the department and wanted DUIs ignored.

In the lawsuit, Grow cited the 2004 case of former UNRPD Lt. Kevin Youngflesh, then a sergeant, being arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in an unmarked police car. Youngflesh was demoted to officer but then rocketed through the ranks to lieutenant by 2007.

UNR officials would not comment on the disparity of Youngflesh’s and Grow’s punishments but to say that a new president, Milton Glick, has since taken charge at the university.

Nick Coltrain can be reached at ncoltrain@nevadasagebrush.com.

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