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GREENSBORO — The two sides in the David Wray controversy continued their war of words Wednesday with the former Greensboro police chief's lawyer calling a news conference to reassert that Wray's resignation last year was triggered by overreaction among city administrators.

Attorney Locke Clifford said he was responding to new documents the City Council released Tuesday that detailed the ex-chief's failure to tell other city officials the full story about repeated investigations into the activities of a black police lieutenant.

Clifford said Wray had a history of promoting minority officers in his 30 months as chief of police.

"Anybody that says or believes that David Wray is a racist, I say, is an idiot," Clifford said.

Wray resigned early last year as he was about to be put on administrative leave while the city took a deeper look into charges he had misled other officials about the investigation of the lieutenant and a number of other issues.

Clifford said that under Wray's supervision, police used appropriate techniques in looking into unrelated allegations by a black prostitute that she had been raped by an unidentified black officer.

The much-discussed "black book" photos of black officers used by investigators examining those charges were a normal investigative tool, Clifford said.

"This is good police work. This is not the blue wall of silence," Clifford said of the investigation, referring to a history of police departments refusing to properly investigate allegations against their own officers.

The black book actually was intended to protect the black officers in case the woman later revived claims against an officer she already had failed to identify in the lineup, Clifford said.

But City Manager Mitchell Johnson pointed out in an interview later Wednesday that the "black book" wasn't mentioned Tuesday and that the newly released documents focused instead on the repeated investigation of Lt. James Hinson, who is black, after he had been cleared of various allegations against him.

"I purposely didn't mention it," Johnson said of the black book, noting it has become such a controversial feature of the Wray matter that it prevents people from focusing on the larger issues that led to Wray's resignation.

The existence of the black book was one of several complaints about Wray a group of black officers brought to city officials, allegations that led Johnson to launch an administrative inquiry in mid-2005.

Wray resigned after the initial phase of the review raised enough questions about his candor, fairness and judgment that Johnson decided to put him on administrative leave while a more intensive review was done.

One key factor, Johnson said, is that Wray misled him and other city administrators, the City Council and the public about the nature and status of the investigation into Hinson's activities.

Wray led people to believe Hinson was a subject of interest in a major drug investigation being led by a "multijurisdictional task force," Johnson said.

Allegations about Hinson's connection to a convicted drug dealer involved in such a case had been investigated and rejected by the department a year earlier, Johnson said.

Clifford said the chief felt a second report that also had cleared Hinson was inadequate.

The report, which was among documents released Tuesday, had been compiled by two retired police officers that Wray rehired specifically to reinvestigate a variety of accusations against Hinson. They found all the accusations either baseless or impossible to prove one way or the other.

Clifford said it was not only Wray who felt the report was insufficient, but the rest of his command staff as well.

Clifford said the ex-chief was targeted for administrative investigation because officials overreacted to concerns raised by some officers, concerns that Wray would have answered effectively if given a chance.

"He thinks it was overreaction by (City Manager) Mitchell Johnson that caused him to be run out of office," Clifford said.

Clifford said Wray is working on his brother's farm, but hopes some day to return to a position worthy of his training and former status.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or twireback@news-record.com