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GREENSBORO - Former police Chief David Wray "crippled" his department with harsher discipline for black officers and threats to commanders who questioned his decisions, according to a confidential report obtained by the News & Record.

The report by an independent Raleigh consultant, kept under wraps by the city since late December, also details a pattern of deceit, selective investigation of alleged corruption and secrecy in the activities of a covert unit under Wray and Deputy Chief Randall Brady.

"Wray knew or should have known that this Special Intelligence Division had crossed the line of appropriateness," wrote retired law enforcement investigators that the city hired from Risk Management Associates. "The chain of command ... between Wray and the unit's activity was only one person, Deputy Chief Brady."

Reached Thursday, Wray attorney Locke Clifford denied that his client had "done anything furtive or anything bad."

Wray resigned in early January after City Manager Mitchell Johnson changed the locks to the chief's office. Johnson had already received the confidential report by RMA, which traces events put in motion after Wray first took office in July 2003.

The 75-page report, based on dozens of interviews and internal documents, found that a group of African American officers were repeatedly investigated for allegations on which they had already been cleared.

Meanwhile, at least another half-dozen black officers were investigated for infractions that had been dismissed or downplayed when they involved white officers.

For example, a black officer whose service weapon was stolen was investigated by Internal Affairs and made to pay for a replacement gun.

In contrast, the case of a white police captain who reported his gun stolen did not undergo an internal investigation, even though his account was deemed "inconsistent," the report said.

The report also alleges a pattern in which black officers were being undermined and singled out, often for minor complaints.

For instance, a black officer was reprimanded for a scrape to his patrol cruiser. The scrape was "less than a dime in diameter" and, the RMA report found, evidence was "weak at best" that the officer even caused the damage because vehicles are handed off between shifts.

Wray's attorney said Thursday that it was "not newsworthy" that employees would be dissatisfied with decisions made by the former chief, and disputed any suggestion that the decisions were racially motivated.

"Anybody who is paying attention, anybody who can fog a mirror is going to realize," attorney Clifford said, "that Chief Wray doesn't come up through the ranks for 25 years, become the first white police chief in 20 years and all of a sudden wake up one day a card-carrying racist. That's preposterous."

Apart from the question of how Wray meted out discipline, the report suggested that race was also a factor in how and why Special Intelligence investigated fellow officers.

The report was particularly critical of "questionable" tactics by former Special Intelligence Officer Scott Sanders.

The report detailed an investigation by Sanders that spanned three years but achieved "minimal'' results. During that probe, the report said, Sanders' tactics had been openly questioned by the local District Attorney and an SBI official, as well as a retired police captain, all of whom voiced their concerns to Wray.

Sanders' attorneys did not return phone messages Thursday but have consistently denied any wrongdoing by the former Special Intelligence officer.

The RMA report accused Sanders, who is white, of bearing a long-standing grudge against a black officer, Julius Fulmore, whom he subsequently targeted in a corruption probe.

Among the tactics the RMA report criticized:

• Using a female informer to try to lure Fulmore into buying stolen TV sets. According to the report, Fulmore told the woman he wanted no part of it, "nor should she."

• Relying, in the same case, on the word of a prostitute who would later change her story and "could not remain awake" during an Internal Affairs lie detector test.

• Enlisting an informer to get other black officers to supply inside police information, and calling at least one officer "more than 70 times," the report said.

Sanders also opened a criminal investigation on a black veteran homicide detective because one of the detective's in-laws was a prostitute.

Such was the broader web of covert operations RMA discovered after setting out to answer what was initially a narrow question: Had Wray told the truth to city leaders and the public last June, when a high-profile black lieutenant discovered Special Intelligence following him on duty?

That incident first exposed the secret activities of Special Intelligence and private detective "hirebacks" the department used for surveillance. The episode would lead city leaders to question why Lt. James Hinson, a former "Officer of the Year," was a focus.

But in reality, as Special Intelligence dug into Hinson's past, other black officers became targets of investigation, the report said. Special Intelligence looked for incriminating evidence dating as far back as 1997, when topless dancers entertained at an officer's bachelor party.

Sanders was warning fellow officers that the investigation was "secret" and they should not even tell their own supervisors about it, the report said.

Yet there was a more troubling level of distrust at the highest command levels, as the report details.

In one instance, according to the report, Wray threatened the command of a popular white police captain who had repeated comments to his staff made by Brady that he would "sacrifice a homicide to get Hinson."

That comment drew the ire of then-District Attorney Stuart Albright, who learned of Brady's comment from a defense attorney. Albright warned Wray that the remark could result in future charges being dismissed because of suspect police motives.

Albright informed Wray that any future investigation of Hinson should be made by the State Bureau of Investigation.

There is no indication Brady was ever punished for his comment. However, the consultants wrote that the commander was made to write an essay for Wray explaining why he shouldn't be transferred for having repeated Brady's comment.

The report also found instances of supervisors being punished for disagreeing with Wray. In one case, a 22-year veteran supervisor received the lowest performance evaluation of his career after he refused to lower Lt. Hinson's rating.

Similarly, two captains received undesirable transfers after refusing to change personnel evaluations at Wray's request.

The FBI is now looking into whether civil rights violations took place. Interim Chief Tim Bellamy, the only current assistant chief not implicated in any administrative wrongdoing, is reviewing the report to determine whether crimes did occur.

The RMA report found that Bellamy, who is black, was intentionally excluded from matters relating to Hinson, Special Intelligence, and even the internal discipline of officers under his command.

Likewise, according to the report, when Wray invited his command staff to his informal weekly dinner each Thursday night at K&W Cafeteria, he never asked his two black assistant chiefs and a black deputy chief to attend, until one of them asked why they were being excluded.

"Subsequently, Chief Wray invited them to a K&W meeting," the report said, "but it seems they never attended such a meeting."

Contact Eric J.S. Townsend at 373-7008 or etownsend@news-record.com

Contact Lorraine Ahearn at 373-2334 or lahearn@news-record.com