DECATUR, Ga. -- A DeKalb County judge ruled on Friday that Lithonia’s mayor overstepped her authority when she fired the city’s police chief last month.

The decision by Judge Linda Warren Hunter is a setback for Mayor Joyce McKibben.

McKibben angrily walked out of the City Council meeting last month in which she fired Police Chief Willie Rosser and was later reversed by the council.

The council later ordered City Hall locked, to keep McKibben out. The mayor moved her office to a nearby coffee shop.

Later that week, McKibben refused to sign city paychecks. The mayor pro tem signed the checks.