In March 2009. Robert Alkire II pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of brandishing a weapon for firing his pistol in an unsafe manner. He was originally charged with one count of wanton endangerment for the November 2007 incident.

His certification as a West Virginia police officer was revoked in April 2010 by the state Law Enforcement Training Subcommittee. Alkire appealed the revocation and an administrative law judge recommended that he get his license back.

J. Norbert Federspiel, the executive director of the Governor's Committee on Crime Delinquency and Corrections, took the law judge's ruling into account and ordered Alkire to serve a two-year suspension. After that he can be employed as a law enforcement officer under certain conditions.

Federspiel declined to comment on his ruling. A phone number could not be located for Alkire.

State Police First Sgt. Curtis Tilley, head of the subcommittee that revoked Alkire's certification, said the panel's actions speak for themselves.

"It's pretty obvious how the committee feels. We voted to decertify him," Tilley said.

Alkire's suspension runs through April 2012, according to state documents.

The report submitted to the LET Subcommittee and Federspiel by the law judge, John A. Grafton, detail what happened the night of Nov. 30, 2007.

Alkire testified that he went to his girlfriend Jennifer Miller's house that night after work and took off his gun belt, shirt and bulletproof vest, as he usually did.

Miller and Alkire began arguing, and Alkire drank almost an entire bottle of vodka, according to Grafton's findings.

"Mr. Alkire was informed of some information that upset him to a great degree," the findings state.

Alkire said he didn't remember any of the events after drinking the vodka until he awoke in the hospital the next morning with his mother sitting beside him.

According to the police report from the incident, Alkire left Miller's apartment and flagged down a car with his flashlight.

"While speaking with that motorist, Mr. Alkire removed his duty weapon from its holster and, on multiple occasions, placed the weapon to his head and indicated he would kill himself. While trying to remove the clip from the weapon, the gun discharged a round into the ground," Grafton wrote.

Alkire disputes that he waved his weapon or fired it, but admits he doesn't remember what happened, according to the findings.

His father, then-Pocahontas County Sheriff Robert Alkire I, testified that he found his son wearing his shirt and gun belt later that night.

The charges on Alkire were reduced from wanton endangerment to misdemeanor brandishing a weapon as part of a plea deal where Alkire agreed not to work as an officer in Pocahontas County for one year.

After the plea deal, Alkire worked as a police officer in Ronceverte, Greenbrier County, from May 2008 to May 2010.

Also, he got counseling to help him "deal with his mental issues leading up to the incident," according to the findings.

The incident didn't come to the attention of the LET Subcommittee until The Charleston Gazette published an article on the incident in November 2009. (State lawmakers are considering a bill that would require police officers' misconduct to be reported to the subcommittee. The current version of the bill would leave the appeals process in place.)

In April 2010, the subcommittee held a hearing and voted unanimously to revoke Alkire's certification. Alkire appealed that decision.

In recommending that Alkire get his license back, Grafton said that "while Mr. Alkire's failure to take full responsibility for all of his actions as reported by other witnesses in the police report is quite troubling, it does not rise to the level of conduct or a pattern of conduct unbecoming to officer or activities that would tend to disrupt, diminish or otherwise jeopardize public trust and fidelity in law enforcement."

Federspiel rejected that finding, but also declined to uphold the subcommittee's original ruling. He suspended Alkire for two years.

"The event of Nov. 30, 2007, appears to be an aberration upon the record of Mr. Alkire and must be weighed against the substantial interest in honorable service that is represented by Mr. Alkire's record of almost 10 years in law enforcement," Federspiel said.

He can apply for recertification as a police officer after April 29, 2012.

Any agency that employs him must report any disciplinary action against him to the LET Subcommittee for the first year. After the probationary period, he would be returned to regular certified status.

Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.