BRENTWOOD — An Auburn police lieutenant who retired in 2010 after an internal investigation into missing evidence has been indicted on felony theft charges, according to prosecutors.

David Flight, 52, of 299 Wilsons Crossing Road in Auburn, was indicted on felony counts of receiving stolen property and theft by unauthorized taking for allegedly stealing a Remington 30-06 rifle from a police department evidence room, state prosecutors said.

The state Attorney General’s Office brought the case forward nearly two years after Flight left the police department with about $17,000 in severance from the town.

Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati said Wednesday that charges against Flight came as a result of a separate probe that began this year.

“There’s not a connection between what Auburn did in 2010 versus what we did in 2012,” Agati said.

Flight allegedly took possession of the weapon — a Remington 30-06 rifle — sometime between Jan. 1, 2001 and Feb. 8, 2012.

Another indictment says that Flight could have taken the weapon as early as Dec. 7, 1992.

Agati said he could not elaborate on details of the case, or how the attorney general came to investigate Flight two years after his departure from the department.

Neither the police nor town officials ever said what was missing from the department’s evidence room.

Auburn Town Administrator Bill Herman said Wednesday that the 2010 probe did not deal with a stolen firearm.

“I can’t provide any details of our internal investigation,” Herman said. “But I can explicitly say, based on what you described, this is not what the town was dealing with in 2010.”

Herman said he was unaware of the attorney general’s investigation.

Flight was a 21-year-veteran of the department who handled the department’s prosecutions. He left under a separation agreement that paid him $17,053.27.

That amount included $12,139 of wages and benefits from Sept. 20 through Nov. 19. He was also paid $3,516 of wages and benefits while he was on paid administrative leave during the town’s investigation. His annual salary was $60,952.

Herman said in 2010 that Auburn’s probe determined that there was missing evidence taken from the police department, but “the investigation itself was inconclusive.”

Auburn selectmen decided to upgrade security in the police department’s evidence room with a motion-sensitive video camera and electronic key pad after the internal investigation.

- - - - - - - -

James A. Kimble may be reached at JKimble@newstote.com.