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GREENSBORO - Supporters of a police lieutenant cleared of criminal allegations are coming to the officer's defense, as frustration in the department mounts over a city-imposed gag rule on officers.

The department's internal probe of alleged wrongdoing by former Chief David Wray's administration labored into its 10th month Monday.

Investigators are working in an evidence vault so restricted that a reporter was not even allowed to see the entrance because of "security concerns," a city spokeswoman said.

The lack of publicly disclosed information - on top of a standing order that police officers not discuss the case - spurred the call for a news conference today in defense of Lt. James Hinson. NAACP officers, Hinson's lawyer and his pastor - the Rev. Cardes Brown - are scheduled to speak.

For three years, Hinson was investigated by the Wray administration via surveillance and wiretaps. His lawyers said the gag order prevents Hinson from responding to a series of reports in the weekly Rhinoceros Times that cast suspicion on his activities.

Meanwhile, Hinson's ex-wife said the department's Criminal Investigations Division showed her parts of a 29-page file focusing on her. She said the department was trying to determine who compiled the dossier.

Beverly Hinson said pages she saw contained personal financial information, a surveillance photo marked "No. 17" of her and Hinson at the circus with their two children, plus details about her parents and a man she divorced a decade before marrying Hinson.

"It (the file) made me think they were doing an investigation criminally on me," said Beverly Hinson, a bank teller and department store clerk.

"If I'm a criminal, what am I doing working two jobs? And if James Hinson is this ‘crooked cop,' what's he doing at 2 o'clock in the morning cleaning offices and working (security) at Harris Teeter?"

Lawyers for James Hinson have disclosed that the supermarket chain gave copies of surveillance tapes from stores under Hinson's supervision to Wray's Special Intelligence unit.

The tapes - showing the comings and goings of moonlighting police officers working security - were turned over at the request of Detective Scott Sanders for "an ongoing criminal investigation of the officers involved," according to a letter from Harris Teeter's attorneys.

It was unclear what Sanders was looking for on the tapes and time-punch records he requested, and Harris Teeter's lawyers wrote that the company never learned the result of the investigation.

Sanders' request was in June 2005, the same month Hinson discovered a "bird dog" tracker planted on his police cruiser, forcing into public view the three-year investigation under Wray. Hinson was soon after suspended with pay, only to be reinstated after Wray resigned.

At the time of the bird dog incident, Wray said Hinson was suspected of doing off-duty security work while on the city clock.

Yet Hinson's ex-wife thinks the investigation began much earlier. She said the family photo at the circus was likely taken in 2000, suggesting that surveillance of Hinson could have predated Wray's appointment as chief in 2003.

Wray's immediate predecessor as chief, former interim Chief Tony Scales, said this week that he was unaware of any Internal Affairs investigation of Hinson before 2002. That was when Hinson's name surfaced in a federal drug case against cocaine kingpin Elton Turnbull.

Hinson confirmed in a News & Record interview in July 2005 that he came under suspicion because he sold Turnbull a rental property in 1999. He had already been romantically linked to Turnbull's girlfriend. But neither federal authorities nor Internal Affairs detectives could find evidence that Hinson was criminally involved.

Scales this week called the length of the ongoing administrative review - running parallel to a still-open State Bureau of Investigation criminal probe - "ridiculous."

"I've never seen anything dragged out this long. It needs to end," said Scales, who retired as deputy chief from the department and today heads security for Guilford County Schools. "You ask the questions. You look at the facts. You come to some kind of conclusion. I don't know why anything would take this long."

City Manager Mitchell Johnson conceded that when interim Chief Tim Bellamy on Jan. 23 announced the review of allegations in a city-commissioned consultant's report, investigators expected to be finished by summer.

But Mitchell said the inquiry has branched into unexpected areas, producing what he called "some salacious and surprising stuff." He declined to elaborate.

So far, the only apparent action to come out of the consultant's report are two recent suspensions:

* Scott Sanders, the Special Intelligence detective who investigated Hinson, was given paid leave, but not told why.

* Assistant Chief Annie Stevenson, who the consultant's report alleged forged a signature on a disciplinary recommendation at former Deputy Chief Randall Brady's request, began a suspension Oct. 16. A News & Record investigation last spring of the forgery allegation showed that Sgt. Robert Walters had complained to the assistant chief that one of his detectives, Cheryl Cundiff, lied about having worked her assigned rape cases. Victims and their families told the News & Record that Cundiff never contacted them after the reported rapes. Walters, a 27-year veteran, was sent back to patrol; he soon left the department for retirement. Cundiff, whose husband is a retired captain and a close friend of Wray's, was put in charge of Walters' squad and given a raise.

An SBI criminal probe of Wray's administration is ongoing, and investigators say they may finish by year's end.

Contact Lorraine Ahearn at 373-7334 or lahearn@news-record.com

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