A senior Pittsburgh Police officer was restored to her rank of commander this afternoon after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in her favor.

Cmdr. Catherine McNeilly, 48, was demoted last month after sending an e-mail to members of city council regarding the nomination of former director of operations Dennis Regan to the position of public safety director.

She filed a lawsuit against the city, Chief Nate Harper and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and also sought a preliminary injunction to reinstate her to her position. Chief U.S. Judge Donetta Ambrose issued her decision from the bench this afternoon, saying that the evidence in the case showed wrongdoing came from the mayor's office.

Cmdr. McNeilly's demotion followed a 50-day investigation into the e-mail she sent on Oct. 9 to council, her husband, former city police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr. and her brother, the police chaplain.

In the message, she detailed what she believed was Mr. Regan's interference into a disciplinary action she initiated against Officer Francis Rende. Officer Rende is the brother of Mr. Regan's housemate. Attached to the e-mail was a Discipline Action Report she prepared against Officer Rende for what she called a pattern of fraud by abusing sick leave to work secondary employment.

Under bureau regulations, no one is allowed to release confidential personnel information.

That, the city claims, is the only reason Cmdr. McNeilly was demoted, and not because she shared her feelings about Mr. Regan.

In addition, the city had tried to show that the disciplinary action Cmdr. McNeilly initiated against Officer Rende was withdrawn because he had never been properly counseled for the behavior in the past, and because some of the infractions against him had not occurred within 120 days, as is required by the officers' collective bargaining agreement.

Perhaps the city's strongest witness on that point was Assistant City Solicitor Hugh McGough. He told Judge Ambrose that when Cmdr. McNeilly first went to him with her concerns regarding Officer Rende's abuse of sick time, that he told her he had problems with her complaint.

When asked by then-Chief Dominic Costa, Mr. McGough said he outlined his concerns, and the complaint was ultimately withdrawn and Officer Rende was counseled.

Last week, during the first part of the hearing, Cmdr. McNeilly admitted she broke some department regulations. But, her attorneys have argued that if she had not, Mr. Regan, who she claimed was unqualified for the public safety position, may have gone through the nomination system unchecked.

To win the preliminary injunction, the judge said that the plaintiff showed that:

the decision against her is causing irreparable harm;

that reversing the decision would be in the public's interest;

that it will not result in even greater harm to the non-moving party (the city); and

that the plaintiff has a reasonable probability of success on the merits at trial.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.