He’s back.

Within the past year, University student Gene Whitner Milner III has been charged with several alcohol and drug-related offenses, been barred from the county and involved in an investigation into the death of another student.

His latest arrest, in December, for disorderly conduct and providing alcohol to minors, led to suspension from classes.

But after a March 1 ruling from University Judiciary, all that separates Milner from another semester at the University are 1,000 words.

A three-member University Judiciary panel cleared Milner of alcohol-related misconduct and ordered him to write a 1,000 word essay for disorderly conduct. He is eligible to re-enroll at the University effective immediately.

The essay, due April 2 to the Office of Judicial Programs, must explain how Milner would alter his actions and behavior if he found himself in a situation similar to the disturbance that led to his Dec. 15 arrest.

Athens-Clarke County Police arrested Milner after a neighbor of his 555 Riverhill Dr. home complained about loud partying.

According to the police report, Milner was “very intoxicated and extremely loud.”

“Somewhere during this he (Milner) asked if I had arrested him here before and was I out here the night he escaped by running and getting into a canoe and going down the river,” the police report stated.

Police charged Milner with providing alcohol to minors, disorderly conduct and a noise violation.

Milner is scheduled to appear in Clarke County State Court on criminal charges on March 21.

Milner’s suspension was a result of a University policy imposed in May, in which students who violate code of conduct policies regarding drugs and alcohol will be put on probation for a first offense and suspended for a second.

Milner was barred from the county in January 2006 after a string of alcohol-related arrests. After taking classes in Colorado for a semester, he re-enrolled at the University in the fall.

University police searched Milner’s house last year during an investigation into the death of University student Lewis Fish. Fish was found dead in his Russell Hall dorm room after ingesting a lethal combination of alcohol, cocaine and heroin. He was at a party in Milner’s house the night he died.

Milner was one of seven charged with various drug and alcohol-related offenses as part of the investigation. Drug possession charges against Milner were later dropped because he was in Colorado at the time of Fish’s death.