By Sue Kiesewetter
Enquirer contributor

FAIRFIELD - A fired Fairfield police officer accused of sexual misconduct with an underage girl has his job back.

The Fairfield Service Commission on Thursday ordered the city to immediately re-instate Thomas Lucas as a police officer, along with restoring his seniority and giving him back pay, minus deductions and interim earnings.

In its six-page ruling, the commission concluded the city failed to sustain its charges against the officer.

"We're going to abide by the ruling. We are not going to appeal it,'' said Dennis Stuckey, Fairfield's assistant city manager. "The (police) chief is working out a schedule so he can put him back to work.''

Officer Lucas was put on paid administrative leave in April after the girl, now 14, told a school counselor Officer Lucas had fondled her on two separate occasions. A Butler County grand jury, however, declined to indict him.

Police Chief Michael Dickey later accused Officer Lucas of violating the Police Department's rules of conduct in four areas:

• Unbecoming conduct.

• Immoral conduct.

• Insubordination.

• Truthfulness.

Officer Lucas was fired in August and filed an appeal with the civil service commission.

He had been a Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer at Fairfield Intermediate School when the allegations surfaced. Chief Dickey said Friday he had not yet talked to Officer Lucas, who would be assigned to the operations division. He said it was too early to say whether he would return to the DARE program.

Officer Lucas has been with the Fairfield Police Department since 1988 and had no prior disciplinary action. In March 2001, he was named one of the city's employees of the quarter.