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OAKLAND, Calif. The Oakland Police Department over the weekend defended its investigation into the slaying of Oakland newspaper editor Chauncey Bailey, disputing a report by a group of journalists that the lead detective working on the case ignored important evidence.

The department denied that Sgt. Derwin Longmire failed to adequately probe Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusef Bey IV's cell phone records and withheld data from a tracking device on Bey's car, according to a statement issued by OPD.

The tracking data was not in Longmire's report because it was included in another investigator's report, police said.

Longmire prepared search warrants for Bey's cell phone and for cell phone records and handed the records over to the Alameda County District Attorney's office investigators, police said.

The Chauncey Bailey Project, a coalition of Bay Area investigative journalists, reported last week that Longmire's case notes did not show he had analyzed the records or the tracking data.

Robert Rosenthal, the project's executive editor, said on Sunday that "the Chauncey Bailey Project is reviewing the police statement and will soon respond appropriately."

A bakery handyman, 21-year-old Devaughndre Broussard, is charged with gunning down the 57-year-old Oakland Post editor in August 2007. He has pleaded not guilty.

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums has asked the California attorney general to conduct an independent investigation into the department's handling of the case.