NATCHEZ &045; A state hearing on the certification of a police officer aldermen rehired in October has been postponed until March 10, the director of the State Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training Board said Wednesday.

A hearing on whether to allow Willie B. Jones to attend &uot;refresher school&uot; to renew his certification as a law enforcement officer was originally scheduled for today.

The hearing was postponed at the request of Jones’ attorney, Robert Boyd of Clinton, board Director Robert Davis confirmed. Neither Jones nor Boyd could be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Jones worked for the Natchez Police Department from April 1989 to April 1997 as an officer and detective, working since then for such agencies as the Waterproof, La., Police Department and Alcorn State University.

According to Davis, a person who been out of law enforcement for two years or more must be approved by the State Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training Board to attend a refresher course prior to being re-certified.

&uot;If a certified officer leaves the department, once he’s out of law enforcement for two years, his certificate is inactive,&uot; Davis said. &uot;A department can hire that person prior to (re-certification), but he has to work under the direct supervision of a certified officer.&uot;

However, Jones is not working under direct supervision.

Davis said he cannot talk about the specifics of any case before the board.

But he said that in order to become certified, a person must meet certain qualifications, including criteria regarding conduct.

&uot;So when we get information, Š if we see there’s been conduct unbecoming an officer,&uot; certification is denied, Davis said.

&uot;Conduct unbecoming&uot; includes such things as a conviction on a felony or on a crime of moral turpitude, or an instance of abuse of the public trust, he said.

In 1997, Jones allegedly offered a fellow officer $260 not to pursue a drug charge against a relative of Jones’ then-fiance.

Jones resigned before an investigation into the matter was finished and was later arrested in the case. Jones was charged with felony obstruction of justice but pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge.

The charge was expunged, or wiped from his record, late last year.

In other developments, city officials still await an opinion from the Attorney General’s Office on the appropriateness of aldermen reemploying and compensating a police officer. City Attorney Walter Brown requested the opinion Nov. 10.

Aldermen voted 4-3 in October, with Mayor Phillip West breaking the tie, to rehire former officer Willie B. Jones at his former rank of patrolman.

Before the vote was taken, Brown told the board that under state law, the authority to rehire a police officer or firefighter rests with the Civil Service Commission, not aldermen.

However, the AG’s Office commonly does not issue opinions in cases currently in litigation.

In late November, Natchez residents Courtney Aldridge and Kevin Colbert filed suit in Adams County Circuit Court against West and the aldermen to reverse the board and mayor’s decision to reinstate Jones.

The deadline for West and the aldermen to file answers in the lawsuit has been extended to Jan. 29.