Crime

Award-Winning TV Reporter Scott Lewis Has A New Job: Private Eye

October 01, 2013, 7:45 AM by  Bill McGraw

Longtime TV newsman Scott Lewis is going underground.

Lewis, whose award-winning career in Detroit started at WWJ-AM in 1976 and ended earlier this year at WXYZ-TV, is trading the high-profile work of an investigative reporter for the more subtle role of a private investigator.

He's open for business, with a website and a mission statement: "To be the investigative agency of choice and industry leader, our focus is on the needs of our clients. We achieve this by providing superior professional investigations and customer service, keeping our client’s interests and confidentiality in mind every step of the way."

Lewis believes it's an easy transition.

"It's the same skill set," he told Deadline Detroit. "You're digging up information. That's what I liked about TV-- the digging. I was not comfortable with the celebrity thing on TV, but I loved the thrill of the hunt."

Lewis, 62, worked in radio for WWJ and WXYZ-AM, then switched to television, working for Fox 2 and WXYZ (Channel 7).

He has specialized in investigations since 1997, and among his many targets were Lonnie Bates, the former member of the Detroit School Board and Detroit City Council who eventually went to prison for corruption, and Detroit police supervisors who, in a riveting report that included helicopter footage and Detroit police radio traffic, DPD supervisors who were doing such extracurricular activities as visiting a mistress and coaching a high school football team when they were supposed to be fighting crime.

In a video on his new website, he says: "How did I do it? No secret. Hard, honest work every day. I checked and rechecked my facts."

Lewis said he is open to all cases, from background checks to surveillance to infidelity investigations, but figures he'll be doing a lot of work for attorneys, especially on complex cases.

He is also doing pro bono work for the Michigan Innocence Clinic, at the University of Michigan Law School, whose students investigate and litigate cases on behalf of prisoners who have new evidence that they are innocent of the crimes for which they have been convicted.

The irony, of course, is that as a reporter, Lewis spent a lot of time busting bad guys and helping to send people to jail.

But he says his 26 years as a journalist in Detroit opened his eyes to "how stubborn the system is."



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