The city Police Commission has deferred disciplinary action against a Kingston Police sergeant who pleaded guilty to a lesser charge following his arrest for drunken driving last month. On Wednesday, Mayor Steve Noble said that the formal disciplinary hearing would have to wait until Sgt. Eric VanAllen returned from sick leave.

“Our officer that we suspended is still out on sick leave and so that’s really the only update we have,” Noble told the commission on Wednesday. “We don’t have anything else to update you all on until he comes back to work and we go through that process with our union and the disciplinary process.”

The veteran cop and day shift supervisor’s future with the department has been in question since Dec. 13 when he was arrested on a charge of misdemeanor driving while intoxicated by state police responding to a call of two men asleep in a vehicle at the intersection of Route 208 and Route 44/55 in Gardiner. VanAllen’s blood alcohol content was recorded at 0.10, above the legal limit of 0.08. On Dec. 18, the police commission voted unanimously to give VanAllen a 30-day unpaid suspension, the longest allowed by state law. The commission also handed him a “Notice of Discipline,” a preliminary to a formal hearing that could result in sanctions ranging from a written reprimand to termination.

On Feb. 12, in accordance with a plea agreement reached between defense attorney Kevin Harp and special prosecutor Michael Pollack (the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office recused itself from the case, citing an unspecified conflict of interest) VanAllen pleaded guilty to a single count of disorderly conduct, a violation. Under the terms of the deal, the conviction would be vacated as long as VanAllen complied with the terms of his sentence which include attending a DWI Victims Impact Panel and paying a court surcharge. Harp said that VanAllen had also voluntarily entered an outpatient alcohol treatment program.