13 WHAM - "Greece police said Tuesday they have "new leads" in the case of a 3-year-old child reported missing Thanksgiving weekend. The boy's father, a Rochester police investigator, is suspended and suspected of driving his son home while drunk then forgetting he had done so.
"When all of this settles, this simply is not going to be an issue to anyone," said Mike Mazzeo, president of the police union.
The incident occurred in the early morning hours November 24, the day after Thanksgiving. The child was discovered missing from a holiday party on Sherri Ann Lane in Greece. The call to 911 was made a 2:06 a.m. Greece police officers assessing the scene called in for help. 37 Rochester police officers left their shifts in the city to join in the search.
The first of them arrived at 2:47 a.m. Mazzeo said the response was appropriate.
"If they get information or they believe that maybe a fellow officer's child was abducted - we don't know if that's in relationship to the police job or not - what do you think is going through their minds?" said Mazzeo.
Less than 45 minutes later, at 3:30 a.m., a neighbor turned over images from his home security camera. The video shows the boy and his father leaving the party a half hour before he was reported missing.
Within another 13 minutes, he was located sleeping in his bed - four miles from the party site. At that point, his father became the subject of a potential criminal investigation. Greece Police Chief Pat Phelan says he has not been charged because they cannot prove who drove the child home and left him there. He said McEntee was not cooperative the night of the incident and has since hired an attorney, and will not consent to be interviewed by police.
McEntee is an 11-year RPD investigator who works special investigations. By 7:30 a.m. the morning of the incident, he was the subject of a second investigation by his department to determine whether he broke any regulations. He has been suspended with pay.
Mazzeo says the criminal investigation will run its course, but that any suspension should not have come until the criminal matter was completed.
"I'm not sure how you hold someone to a higher standard when they're in a private residence," he said. "We all need our time off and we socialize."
McEntee's attorney did not return calls or texts seeking comment. Rochester Police Chief Michael Ciminelli says the internal investigation could take several months."