Chief suspended for week after leaving gun in library

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio (AP) -- The police chief will be suspended for a week without pay, a punishment she recommended for leaving her purse at a library with a loaded pistol inside.
The Columbus suburb's mayor issued the punishment Monday for Chief Jeanne Miller after other officers confronted the chief about the Jan. 3 episode at the Reynoldsburg Public Library.
Miller said she realized after she drove off that she left her purse slung on chair at a computer terminal. She said she radioed other officers for help and raced back to retrieve it. The chief was off-duty at the time.
During an internal investigation, Miller volunteered that she had left her 9 mm gun at a restaurant five years earlier, Safety/Service Director Sharon Reichard said.
Mayor Robert McPherson told Miller in a memo that he thought she had an exemplary record and that the 40-hour suspension was too much.
But Miller said she wanted the tougher terms.
"I need to be held to a higher standard," she said.