Northern Illinois University has cleared its tough-talking police chief of allegations he threatened an editor of the campus newspaper, and on Friday it reinstated the man seen as a hero after last year's campus shooting as NIU's top cop.
An independent review panel "found no evidence of misconduct or inappropriate actions" by Donald Grady, who led his men into a lecture hall last year after a gunman opened fire, killing five students, a school statement said.
Administrators had placed the 56-year-old on paid leave in October after he was accused of threatening and trying to bribe the Northern Star's editor-in-chief, Justin Weaver, during an interview. The allegations prompted the newspaper to call for Grady's removal.
A finding against Grady could have cost him his $199,000-a-year job. But the panel found Grady never threatened or sought to bribe Weaver. A separate criminal investigation by an internal investigations unit of the Illinois State Police came to the same conclusion, NIU said.
Grady's reinstatement as police chief at the 25,000-student campus was effective immediately, NIU said.