PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — A Sarpy County sheriff’s deputy accused of a sex assault at a sports bar has been fired.

Rick Wheeler had appealed his firing to the county’s Merit Commission last week, but Sarpy County Attorney Lee Polikov says Wheeler lost.

The 53-year-old Wheeler has pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for March 13.

Wheeler was a sergeant who’d worked 26 years for the Sheriff’s Office.