A Warren police officer is facing two departmental charges of dereliction of duty after officials said evidence in the Heidi Gill case came up missing.
A disciplinary hearing on Patrol Officer Michael Merritt was scheduled for Monday afternoon. Those hearings are private, and the outcome will not be known for several days.
Gill has filed a federal lawsuit saying Patrol Officer Rich Kovach used excessive force when he arrested her in September 2007. Gill said she was Tasered numerous times, and the incident was caught on video from Kovach's dash camera.
Gill was arrested on several charges, including disorderly conduct, but those charges were later dismissed. Kovach was suspended for 60 days.
According to documents from the city's human resource department, officials said in April of 2008 Merritt brought evidence on Gill's case back from the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and lab in Richfield. Those two bags of evidence have since become lost.
Records state a thorough search for the evidence has been ongoing for months, but the evidence has not been found.
