Ethics of Nifong's detective at issue

Panel investigated, never charged him

DURHAM -- With the North Carolina attorney general reviewing the Duke lacrosse case, the new prosecutors must weigh evidence gathered by Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong's chief investigator, whose private detective career was marked by ethics complaints.

Nifong hired Linwood E. Wilson, a gospel singer with limited experience working criminal cases, less than four months before the March 13 lacrosse team party at which an escort service dancer said she was raped, beaten and robbed.

Wilson, 58, is the only full-time investigator on Nifong's staff. Twenty years ago he was investigated on suspicion of making false statements on the witness stand and setting up an illegal telephone tap, according to his file at the state agency that licenses private investigators.

Wilson was never charged with a crime, and he says he acted appropriately. Still, his credibility is likely to be attacked by attorneys for the three accused players, who face charges of kidnapping and sexual offense.

At issue is a Dec. 21 interview with Wilson in which the accuser reportedly changed her story of who assaulted her, how and when -- contradicting all her previous statements, records of calls to her cell phone, 911 records and time-stamped photos from the party.

The woman said she could no longer testify that she was raped, forcing Nifong to drop that charge against the defendants.

Wilson's handwritten notes and a typed report are the only accounts of his one-on-one interview with the woman in December.

Defense lawyers have called the new story an implausible "do-over" that attempts to fill holes in the prosecution case.

Efforts to reach Nifong have been unsuccessful. Wilson said he welcomes such scrutiny.

"I've worked for just about every domestic lawyer in Durham," Wilson said. "If these people feel I'm not a credible witness, I will sit on the stand all day long and say, 'Why did you hire me to work for your client?' Bring it on. My integrity stands for itself. I've never had anybody question my integrity."

An imposing 6-foot-4, Wilson sings bass in the Spokesmen Quartet, a Southern gospel group. Married with two grown children, he was retired the seven years before being hired in December 2005 to help the district attorney track people accused of writing worthless checks.

Soon after the rape accusations became known, Nifong effectively assumed direct supervision of the two Durham police investigators assigned to the case and sent Wilson to help them. When news broke in April that the accuser had made a 1996 rape report to police in Creedmoor, it was Wilson who showed up to examine the record.

Wilson also played a key role in the May arrest of a taxi driver who provided an alibi for one player. Defense attorneys criticized the arrest as an effort to intimidate a witness.

Moezeldin Elmostafa had signed an affidavit that he took Reade Seligmann and another player to a cash machine, a burger joint and a dorm on the night of the party. Records from Seligmann's cellphone, the ATM's security camera and the dorm corroborate Elmostafa's account.

Wilson found an unserved three-year-old warrant charging Elmostafa with shoplifting after a woman was filmed getting into his cab after she stole five pocketbooks from Northgate Mall. Elmostafa said he knew nothing about the theft and once he learned about it, he helped investigators catch the woman. But the warrant remained outstanding.

After Wilson told Nifong about the warrant, Elmostafa was arrested. Elmostafa was acquitted at an August trial, with Wilson and other lacrosse investigators looking on from the gallery.