CITY PROBES LEAK OF DRUG CASE FILES

GREENSBORO -- Police have launched an investigation into who copied
sensitive internal files and transcripts from highly restricted
federal drug cases and fed them to a local weekly newspaper, city
leaders said Friday.

And the city has launched a Web site
(www.greensborocheckyourfacts.org) to dispel what City Manager
Mitchell Johnson called "urban legends" about former police Chief
David Wray. Wray resigned in January amid allegations that a covert
squad targeted black officers for unfair internal investigation.

The developments were announced at a City Hall news conference after
a recent serialized account of the story by Jerry Bledsoe in the
Rhinoceros Times. The City Council asked Johnson to address the
public after the weekly paper reported graphic details of a 1997
bachelor party for James Hinson, a high-profile black lieutenant at
the center of the scandal.

Though never mentioning the Rhinoceros Times or Bledsoe by name,
Johnson and Mayor Keith Holliday said Friday that identifying
confidential informers in federal cases posed a risk.

"It just doesn't take a degree in criminal justice to understand the
ramifications that could lead from that," Holliday said.

The new Web site is an attempt to end confusion about events
surrounding the affair. Johnson cited as an example his decision to
change the locks on Wray's office in January.

Though Wray's supporters criticized that move as an attempt to
humiliate the chief, Johnson called it "entirely standard operating
procedure," though he said it was belated.

"Quite frankly," Johnson said, "whatever files might have been in
that office clearly left that office before that action was taken."

Both Wray and his attorney have declined News & Record interview
requests and did not return phone messages Friday.

Wray's departure capped a seven-month series of events that started
when Hinson found a tracking device on his cruiser placed by the
Special Intelligence Section, dubbed the "secret police" by the ranks.

Although Wray cleared Special Intelligence of wrongdoing, Johnson
said he began to hear complaints from officers under Wray's command.

After hearing "serious" concerns echoed in a private meeting with
State Bureau of Investigation officials, Johnson hired a Raleigh
consulting firm to probe the complaints. By December, the firm had
concluded that Wray deceived Johnson about the existence of a "black
book" of African American officers and that despite repeated internal
investigations that cleared Hinson of various accusations, Wray
continued to have him followed.

Capt. M.T. Kelly of the police Internal Affairs unit said the
apparent release of confidential informers' names is part of an
overall review of the Wray administration. Access to federal
narcotics case files would have been restricted to investigators
directly involved.

Johnson said discipline for officers accused of wrongdoing could be
meted out as early as next week, and he implied that some reprimands
may have already taken place.

State personnel laws prohibit the city from identifying which
officers are punished or what those punishments may be.

Meanwhile, the city awaits the result of a criminal investigation by
the SBI, which has interviewed more than 70 people and reviewed
hundreds of documents and recordings .

Part of the delay stems from "issues" the SBI has encountered with
federal prosecutors in Greensboro, according to an affidavit filed in
federal court last week. State agents want to interview members of
the U.S. Attorney's Office for "relevant information" but thus far
have not been granted interviews.