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Alorton police chief on leave after certification pulled


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The police chief of a southwestern Illinois village is on unpaid leave while challenging a state board's decision to bar him from being a law enforcer because of previous criminal cases against him.

KMOV-TV reports that the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board has decertified Alorton Police Chief Michael Baxton. He also had served as police chief in East St. Louis.

KMOV says Alorton administrators learned of the decertification on Monday and put Baxton on leave.

KMOV reports that he was twice charged with battery in the early 1990s, although both cases were dismissed. He also was criminally charged in 1987, although there's no public record of that case.

Baxton referred questions Tuesday to his attorney, Clay St. Clair. St. Clair didn't immediately return a message.