LINCOLN - Lincoln Mayor Beth Davis denied Monday that the city is ignoring the state's attorney's allegations of police incompetence, including one case in which he said police waited outside while a woman was being stabbed.

Davis issued a statement slamming Logan County State's Attorney Tim Huyett for disclosing information she considered highly confidential.

"Many of these cases are currently pending and specific case details should not be divulged," Davis said.

She also said the city has brought in an outside consultant in December to evaluate Huyett's claims.

Huyett issued an eight-page memo to the public claiming errors by Lincoln police have resulted in serious injuries to victims, lost evidence and unsolved crimes. Huyett outlined problems with more than 15 criminal cases dating back more than four years.

He said he notified Davis of his concerns last May, but went public late last week because he was frustrated with what he said was her inaction. He released his report to the news media without notifying the city last week, Davis said.

Huyett declined to comment further on the allegations.

Among the most serious claims Huyett made involved a stabbing in April.

Police were aware Eric Freeman was brandishing a screwdriver as a weapon, but they waited for Logan County sheriff's police to arrive as the woman was being stabbed, Huyett said in his report. Freeman is scheduled to go on trial in March on charges of attempted murder, aggravated criminal sexual abuse, armed violence and armed violence.

The mayor said she and city officials are working to address the issues raised by Huyett. The Lincoln City Council gave Davis the go-ahead to hire a retired state police commander in December to review policies of the police and other city department, the mayor said.

Davis said Monday the review is almost complete.

Meanwhile, the release of the memo has hurt the morale of the police department, Davis said.

"They're very, very discouraged and disturbed," she said.

Calls to Lincoln Police Chief Robert Rawlins for comment were not returned.

In his memo, Huyett said police:

n Failed to take suspects into custody and process crime scenes correctly multiple times.

n Failed to conduct interviews properly in some cases and failed to conduct any interviews in others. The department has adopted the practice of writing "suspect letters" to people wanted for questioning in criminal matters.

"This technique reached its most absurd in a LPD case that involved a theft of property that was posted on the Internet," Huyett wrote.

A detective mailed questions he received from prosecutors to the suspect and asked that suspect to answer and return them, Huyett said.

In another case, a detective "failed to find a full bottle of Boone's Farm wine and two pounds of ham" in a suspect's pants. A subsequent search at the jail by a corrections officer also failed to locate the items.

The state's attorney also accuses an officer of improperly pulling a handgun on several people, including a passenger who fled a traffic stop. Lincoln police should have known that one of their officers was growing marijuana in her home, said Huyett, referring to a 2004 case in which former Cpl. Diana Short was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The officer should have been fired and not allowed to resign, said the prosecutor.

Edith Brady-Lunny can be reached at eblunny@pantagraph.com.