Lead Detective in Oakland Journalist's Killing Faces Probe

Detective Allegedly Ignored Evidence

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums has asked the California Attorney General's Office to conduct an outside investigation into the killing of Chauncey Bailey, after new allegations surfaced involving the lead detective in the case.

Oakland police confirmed they are investigating Sgt. Derwin Longmire. But the department declined to say what prompted the probe or whether it was connected to the Bailey case.

The Chauncey Bailey Project, a coalition of San Francisco Bay area investigative journalists, reported Sunday that Longmire ignored evidence linking former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusef Bey IV to Bailey's killing.

Longmire did not immediately return calls seeking comment. The Bailey Project, which has examined the relationship between Longmire and the bakery, says its reporting led to the internal affairs investigation.

A bakery handyman, 20-year-old Devaughndre Broussard, is charged with gunning down the 57-year-old Oakland Post editor in broad daylight in August 2007. Police say Broussard was upset about Bailey's reporting on financial problems at the bakery, which filed for bankruptcy in 2006.

Bey is being held without bail on unrelated charges that he and two other bakery members kidnapped and tortured two women. He has not been arrested or charged in connection with Bailey's murder.

"This is not meant to call into question the integrity of any officer involved in the homicide investigation, nor is it meant to cast doubt on our own internal affairs investigation, which will run concurrently with the Attorney General's efforts," Dellums said in a prepared statement.

The Bailey Project reported that the Alameda County District Attorney's office already has opened its own investigation into whether there was a conspiracy to kill Bailey. District Attorney Tom Orloff declined to comment on whether an investigation was under way.

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