IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A University of Iowa student who was expelled for repeated academic misconduct has been reinstated after the school failed to use his written confessions against him in court. A judge says her order that reinstated business student Pengzhen Yin now appears unjust given that he admitted to plagiarizing the paper in question after he was sanctioned for cheating twice previously. But she says the university failed to provide Yin’s emails admitting the plagiarism during his appeal and she wasn’t aware of them before ruling that Iowa lacked evidence of his misconduct.

In one email, Yin admitted to a top school official that, “In fact, I didn’t write the paper” that he had been expelled for plagiarizing. He had earlier claimed otherwise. Yin has re-enrolled following the December order by District Judge Karen Romano. He’s on track to graduate this spring while the university appeals. His attorney declined comment.