Posted at: 10/06/2009 5:08 PM | WHEC.com
Updated at: 10/06/2009 7:56 PM
By: Brett Davidsen

I-Team 10 investigation: Merritt Rahn's missing gun

Five of the counts in today's indictment against suspended Greece Police Chief Merritt Rahn accuse him of crimes related to the loss of his police-issued gun almost a decade ago.

This is something that happened in 1999 but the DA's office says they just recently developed information they claim shows Rahn falsified reports about the theft of his service revolver.

Rahn's gun was stolen from his unlocked police car while it was parked in his driveway. A few months after it happened, investigators with the sheriff's department caught the thief, who admitted to stealing and then selling the gun.

Rahn had not reported it stolen and later contended he was unaware it was missing because he was recuperating from an injury when it happened. That appears to be at the heart of these criminal charges - when was it stolen and when did Merritt Rahn know his gun was missing.

The pistol eventually turned up almost a year later during a bust at a drug house in the city of Rochester. According to the indictment, Rahn directed his deputy chief to file a false report about the gun theft and also ordered another employee at Greece PD to enter false information into a nationwide database. Rahn's also accused of lying about it to his boss.

Monroe County District Attorney Mike Green said, �Merritt Rahn knowingly provided false information in a memo that he gave to the town supervisor regarding his gun being stolen."

These charges date back to incidents that occurred eight or nine years ago and under normal circumstances, the statute of limitations would have passed. However, when dealing with a public official and the alleged crimes are committed in the course of their duties as a public official, the statute of limitations is extended, in this case to 10 years.

For more Rochester, N.Y. news go to our website www.whec.com.