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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri appeals court has ruled that the former superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol overstepped her authority when she fired a trooper who was driving a boat when a handcuffed Iowa man fell out and drowned.

The appeals court on Tuesday sent the case back to the patrol to determine proper punishment for Trooper Anthony Piercy in the 2014 death of 20-year-old Brandon Ellingson, of Clive, Iowa, at the Lake of the Ozarks.

The Jefferson City News-Tribune reports a patrol review board recommended Piercy be reinstated but transferred out of the Jefferson City troop. Former Superintendent Sandra Karsten fired Piercy in 2017.

Piercy is still fighting to have his law license reinstated after it was revoked twice. A hearing on the appeal is scheduled for early next month.