Lesbian police officer won't get her job back

Decatur, Ga.'s highest-ranking female police officer, who charged that she was fired because she's gay, will not get her job back. Attorney Mark Burnette ruled that city officials did not discriminate against Criss Hudson on May 2 when she was disciplined for cheating on a test and officials eliminated her job in a department reorganization, city manager Peggy Merriss said Wednesday. Burnette added, however, that the city should not have cut Hudson's pay 10% as punishment for cheating. Hudson will receive about $1,000 for the time she was with the department after being disciplined. Merriss had testified at an August hearing that she could no longer trust Hudson after an investigation revealed that Hudson had asked other officers to help her with open-book college exams. The city was paying for Hudson to get an undergraduate degree in criminal justice.