CARSON CITY -- Gov. Jim Gibbons' new public safety director, Phil Galeoto, came under fire Wednesday after reports surfaced that he resigned his job as a Reno police officer in 1999 following an internal affairs investigation.

Galeoto, 59, was appointed director of the agency that oversees the Nevada Highway Patrol shortly after Gibbons was sworn into office early New Year's Day in his home in Reno. He will be paid $120,401 a year.

Gibbons defended his selection despite newspaper reports eight years ago in which the Reno police chief said Galeoto had jeopardized the safety of fellow officers when he failed to enter arrest warrants into a police computer.

"Nothing has changed my confidence in Phil Galeoto as director of the Department of Public Safety," Gibbons said in a statement. "He underwent a complete background check twice for his work as a defense contractor. I've known him for a long time, and I know his capabilities."

Galeoto, who returned from Iraq on Christmas Eve after serving a year as director of the Baghdad Police College, said he made a mistake eight years ago and has learned from the mistake. He said he has a record as a good administrator and law enforcement officer.

He added that he failed to respond to the news report in 1999 out of frustration.

"I was angered by the suggestion I had done something improper other than failing to complete a project," he said. "A stack of warrants were sticking on my desk. I had an emotional reaction and I said I will retire. In hindsight, I should have defended myself. I was embarrassed and I chose not to respond to it."

A source who has worked with Galeoto was "flabbergasted" that Gibbons had appointed the former Reno police officer as public safety director. Some leaders in the law enforcement community were disappointed by the appointment, the source said.

Galeoto resigned his job as a lieutenant with the Reno Police Department on July 3, 1999, after a police investigation found that he had failed to enter a "large" number of arrest warrants into the police computer.

In the news account, Reno Police Chief Jerry Hoover said Galeoto "retired on his own choice. He was not asked to resign. He was not forced out."

Hoover said the oversight could have jeopardized other officers because they would not know if someone they stopped for a traffic violation was wanted for a crime. Hoover said he believed Galeoto "just got busy doing other projects."

In appointing him Monday, Gibbons said that "Phil Galeoto has the experience and management skills to build on the accomplishments of the Department of Public Safety and make it a word-class agency that even better serves Nevadans."

He noted that Galeoto had just returned from the Middle East, where he had served as director of the Baghdad Police College under a U.S. Department of Justice contract.