On Dec. 21, Mike Nifong's chief investigator, Linwood Wilson, went to an undisclosed location and met with Crystal Gail Mangum. According to Nifong's files, this was the first time the District Attorney's Office talked with Mangum about the case.

This was the most important interview of Wilson's career. With a national spotlight focused on his boss, he sat down with the accuser in perhaps the most publicized criminal case in North Carolina history.

Wilson's interview came after a week during which Nifong slammed into serious problems with the case -- and with his law license.

A week earlier, Nifong's DNA expert testified he and Nifong agreed not to report DNA results favorable to the lacrosse players. And on Dec. 20, Nifong received a letter from the N.C. State Bar, announcing a new grievance had been filed accusing him of withholding the same DNA evidence.

Wilson was an unlikely emissary. He had spent a few years on the Durham police force in the 1970s, and he toiled most of the next 20 years as a private investigator. Wilson racked up a half-dozen complaints from clients and left the field after a state reprimand.

Hired in December 2005 as a coordinator for pursuing worthless check charges at a $23,453 annual salary, Wilson started working on the lacrosse case in May. Nifong later promoted him to chief investigator and gave him a 66 percent raise, to $39,000.

One of Wilson's chief tasks was to confront witnesses who undercut the prosecutor's case. According to Nifong's files, Wilson met with the owner and employees of the Platinum Club in Hillsborough, where Mangum danced. He dug up an old misdemeanor warrant on Moezeldin Elmostafa, a taxi driver who backed Reade Seligmann's alibi, and told Durham police to arrest him.

In October, Wilson went to see defense lawyer Bill Thomas, looking for the video showing Mangum dancing vigorously on a stripper's pole at the Platinum Club on March 25. Her appearance on tape hurt the case, because she had said she was injured at the March 13 party, and Nifong said she was too traumatized to talk April 11.

Thomas accused Wilson of avoiding the truth: Why hadn't they pressed Mangum, Nifong's chief witness, on why she has told so many conflicting stories?

"He swelled up and pushed out his chest and said, 'Well, she hasn't been cross-examined by me yet!' " Thomas recalled.

Wilson got his chance Dec. 21.

According to all available documents, Wilson did nothing to get at the truth.

The former private eye did not probe Mangum's prior statements. He did nothing to sort out the numerous contradictions, including which of the players she had earlier identified as using the names Adam, Brett and Matt. Why were there no injuries in such a violent attack? Were condoms used? Was Kim Roberts, the second dancer, a fellow victim or a co-conspirator?

Instead, Wilson emerged with a story rich with new or previously unknown details that were, at first glance, favorable to the prosecution: The rape was over by midnight, not about 12:40 a.m. One of the defendants, Dave Evans, used three fake names (Dan, Adam and Brett); Reade Seligmann used two (Adam and Matt). She couldn't remember whether Collin Finnerty used one. She didn't know whether penises were used to rape her. Roberts had stood at the open bathroom door as Mangum's attackers wiped her off with a towel.

Help and hindrance

The new account seemed to patch publicized holes in the case; putting the assault before midnight could undercut Seligmann's formidable digital alibi, which included bank surveillance photos.

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