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GREENSBORO - Previewing the thunderhead of costly litigation looming over City Hall, a lawyer for the lieutenant at the center of a police scandal called on the city to end the public ordeal.

Ken Free, who represents Lt. James Hinson and about 30 other black police officers, said at a news conference Wednesday that the lieutenant had been investigated and cleared of misconduct several times but continues to endure public humiliation.

Though a confidential report on former Chief David Wray's administration was posted on the Internet only 10 days ago, Free, flanked by NAACP officers and black ministers, said city officials have known the gist of its findings for almost a year.

Still, Free alleged, city officials "continue to allow my client to suffer and make no attempt to bring this to an end."

Complicating matters is a series in the weekly Rhinoceros Times that Free said is spreading inaccurate information.

With a police department gag order preventing the officers from speaking publicly, the news conference at New Light Missionary Baptist Church was the latest volley in a war of words.

At one end is Wray, the white former chief who resigned under fire in January and is telling his version of events in the Rhinoceros Times series.

On the other side are the black officers, prevented from telling their version because they work for the city.

Caught in the precarious middle is City Hall.

Attempting to distance the city from Wray, City Council members have urged City Manager Mitchell Johnson to release more information. But the city legal department, leery of releasing information that could be used against the city in court, has clamped down on the release of virtually anything.

One of the team of private attorneys the city has hired for an expected tangle of lawsuits, Martin Erwin, said information can't be released because it is personnel-related and that no exception applies.

But the city even refused a request for information from Hinson's ex-wife, who was not employed by the city but was the subject of a 29-page police dossier. Beverly Hinson's lawyer, Amiel Rossabi, said official "stonewalling" for fear of being sued could have the opposite effect of forcing more lawsuits.

"I assume their position is going to be that until I sue them, they can do whatever they want," he said. "When they won't give (the information) to me, it makes me think there's something there."

Beverly Hinson said a surveillance photo she was shown from the dossier dated from 2000. There is no record of an official investigation of her ex-husband, James Hinson, until 2002. That was when his cell phone number turned up in the safe of a cocaine kingpin and the Internal Revenue Service discovered that the kingpin bought a rental house from Hinson years earlier.

Hinson was investigated and cleared of criminal wrongdoing several times. But Wray's Special Intelligence unit continued to keep Hinson under surveillance. Wray suggested in a recent Rhinoceros Times story that he had evidence that Hinson broke department rules by working off-duty while on the city clock.

But Hinson's lawyer said Wednesday that accusation had proven unfounded, and that was why Wray did not fire Hinson.

Ken Keller, an attorney for Wray, said Wednesday that the former chief tried to discipline Hinson, but that Johnson refused to meet with Wray and that the city attorney wanted "more evidence."

Keller declined to discuss what the alleged evidence was.

Though black leaders, including NAACP President Gladys Shipman, called on the city to "press charges or apologize," Johnson did publicly apologize to Hinson in January.

Free also alleged that Johnson and the council knew as early as Nov. 11, 2005, what their hired investigators were turning up on Wray. Johnson disputes this, stating that he waited until the report was complete to take action.

"We're talking about someone who is chief of police," Johnson said. "I was not going to take any action until the people assigned investigative duties had completed their job and had thoroughly checked and double- checked their information."

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

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