John Ferak

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Third in a five-part video series examining Steven Avery's $36 million lawsuit against Manitowoc County.

James Lenk managed Manitowoc County's evidence storage unit and led the detective bureau. Just three weeks after being deposed in Steven Avery's $36 million lawsuit, Lenk helped spearhead the investigative efforts targeting Avery for the Oct. 31, 2005 disappearance of photographer Teresa Halbach.

Name: James Martin Lenk, lieutenant detective, retired in December 2011 after 23 years with Manitowoc County.

Biography: Born August 1949; from Sandusky, Michigan; Detroit police officer, 1972-1976; obtained bachelor's degree from Mercy College of Detroit in 1981; security officer at Botsford General Hospital in Farmington Hills from 1981-1985; corporate security with Michigan Bell Telephone Corp., 1985-1988; hired as Manitowoc County jailer in December 1988; promoted into detective unit in 1998; named head of detective unit in May of 2003 upon Gene Kusche's retirement; named Manitowoc County's 2010 officer of year; now lives in Arizona.

Role in Avery wrongful conviction: Avery's civil lawyers were weighing whether to add Lenk, Sgt. Andrew Colborn or Sheriff Ken Petersen as co-defendants to their still-developing civil rights lawsuit against Manitowoc County, partly based on their videotaped depositions from mid-October 2005. Lenk was Colborn's supervisor and both men had a close professional relationship.

Key moments from Lenk's sworn testimony of Oct. 11, 2005: Lenk gave at least 100 one-word or two-word only responses during his lawsuit deposition that lasted 48 minutes. Lenk's most common responses were "Correct," "Right" and "No, sir."

RELATED: Avery lawsuit video: Ex-sheriff Ken Petersen

RELATED: Avery lawsuit video: Sketch artist Gene Kusche

That day, Lenk testified he handled a box of evidence from Avery's 1985 wrongful rape conviction about a year prior to Avery's Sept. 11, 2003 DNA exoneration.

"I believe it was a court order that came over stating that it should be sent to the crime lab ... I did sent out evidence in 2002 or something like that."

Then, the day after Avery's DNA exoneration of Sept. 11, 2003, Lenk and Colborn met to discuss an eight-year-old phone call Colborn suddenly remembered taking while working in the jail division in 1995. That critical information, if followed up at the time, could have prompted Avery's exoneration during the 1990s.

"At the time that Officer Colborn gave me the information, although it was vague, because of the circumstances it had come out already about this Avery case, I thought it may or may not be relevant. So I said maybe you should pass that on to the sheriff. That's how we ended up going to Sheriff Petersen .. I think I just went up and knocked on his door. I believe we went together."

Lenk testified he and Colborn then went together to meet with Sheriff Ken Petersen. The sheriff asked them to each write a report, which went into the agency's sealed vault and the matter regarding Colborn's disregarded 1995 phone call was never discussed any further within the department.

"You know, I don't have any recollection. In fact I had forgotten about this statement until it was brought to my attention. I didn't think anything of it too much at the time and I just forgot about it ... I don't know what else was talked about."

Source sworn testimony: Magne-Script Video Court Reporting

John Ferak: 920-993-7115 or jferak@gannett.com; on Twitter@johnferak