A former Georgetown police officer who was fired and reinstated is now out of work again.

The Georgetown Police Department gave Sgt Jimmy Fennell a second chance to keep his job on Tuesday -- not because administrators wanted to, but because their first attempt to fire him was flawed.

"We are back to square one, and it is not our intent to fire him, let me get that made clear, our intent is to conduct this investigation and find out what has occurred," said Kevin Stofel, assistant chief, Georgetown police.

According to Stofel, a reinstatement letter was written because they made a simple but big mistake.

Fennell's job file, documenting the December 20th firing, did not include a copy of the formal complaint against him.

"So he never got a copy of the actual complaint, as required by law, he got a copy of everything else, but that complaint wasn't in there. It was an administrative error that occurred. It was unfortunate, but it happened," Stofel said.

But Fennell's attorney, Robert Phillips, questions how things played out.

"He is tired of dealing with a department that can only be characterized as dishonorable in the way they have handled this situation," he said.

According to Phillips, Fennell is now saying, thanks, but no thanks.

"It's just getting old, he's decided to resign," Phillips said.

Fennell was indicted last month after being accused of sexually assaulting a women in October. At the time, he was working a domestic disturbance call. A woman, who was at the scene, told police that Fennell drove her to a park and forced her to have sex.

Investigators say they found the woman's palm prints on the trunk of Fennell's police cruiser.

Giving Fennell his job back was a way to force him to answer questions by police investigators. His resignation means everything will now play out in a courtroom.

"His own department has hung him out to dry and denied him due press we expect to get due process in court, but we are not going to talk about or discuss the specifics about that case -- not before that time," Phillips said.

Fennell was scheduled to meet with police investigators Friday morning, but that will no longer happen.

He is expected to be in court on the 15th.