Detective Louis Scarcella Misconduct Cases

Now-retired Brooklyn Detective Louis Scarcella has -- by far -- been responsible for more known wrongful convictions in New York State than anyone else. The following is the entirety of all of these cases, as compiled on the present site:

 

Bunn, John AND Hargrove/Hargrave/Hardgrave,* Rosean; murder; NRE: mistaken witness identification, police officer misconduct, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant

[* This surname is spelled various ways in legal decisions.]

Suggestibility issues

[Bunn] [620:413]; 2nd Dept. 12/19/94; affirmed

"One day after the shooting, the eyewitness identified [Bunn] in a corporeal lineup as the individual who had approached the driver's side of the vehicle in which the witness was seated and shot the driver in what appeared to be a carjacking.

"[W]e are satisifed that the verdict of guilt was not against the weight of the evidence..."

[Hargrove] 1998 WL 635710; E.D.N.Y. 2/9/98; writ denied, but Certificate of Appealability issued

"This case arises out of a car-jacking and shooting that occurred on or about August 13, 1991, sometime between 4:00 and 4:30 in the morning, just outside the Kingsborough Housing Project in Brooklyn...According to the testimony of the surviving victim, Robert Crosson, he and Rolando Neischer -- two correction officers who had known each other for many years -- had been sitting and talking in Neischer's car...when two young men approached the car on bicycles, drew guns, and ordered them out of the car. According to Crosson, [Hargrove's] co-defendant [John Bunn] shot Neischer as he was getting out of the car and [Hargrove] shot Crosson. Crosson then ran away approximately 50-60 feet until the assailants drove off. When he ran back to where the car had been and could not find Neischer, he proceeded in the direction of a nearby hospital to get help.

"Two police officers patrolling the area in a police vehicle came upon Crosson, who identified himself as a corrections officer and told them that he and Neischer had been shot. The two officers, who had heard approximately ten shots fired in rapid succession, had already been heading in the direction of the crime scene; Crosson entered their car and the three proceeded to the area...where Neischer's car had been at the time of the shooting...A bleeding, but still alive Neischer was then found approximately 192 feet away...Mr. Neischer had been shot five times. He was taken to the nearby hospital where he died within a few days. Mr. Crosson sustained a gunshot wound to the hand."

[Certificate of Appealability issued because defense was prevented from questioning Crosson about his alleged previous dealings in stolen goods.]

[But 2nd Circuit then affirmed district court's denial of the writ.]

[Hargrove] 26 N.Y.S.3d 726; Kings Cty. Ct. 4/14/15; motion to vacate granted

"The defense's posture is that the judgment should be vacated because the single identification testimony of Robert Crosson was facilitated by Detectives Louis Scarcella and Steven Chmil, and those detectives have recently been found in other cases to have engaged in 'corrupt investigative practices.'

"On August 13, 1991, two correction officers were shot, one killed, the other injured in the Kingsborough housing projects of Brooklyn. On August 14, 1991, [Hargrove] was arrested without a warrant on the second floor of his family's dwelling. On August 15, 1991, he was identified in a photo array prepared by Detectives Louis Scarcella and Steven Chmil ...On November 24, 1992, [Hargrove] was convicted of murder in the second degree and assault in the first degree, after a jury trial, in which the testimony of one eyewitness was taken...A hearing was conducted [on 9/16/14] on the claim of newly discovered evidence, actual innocence, ineffective assistance of counsel at trial and missing evidence.

"The first witness to testify at the hearing was Robert Crosson, one of the victims. [Hargrove] was convicted of assault in the first degree for the injuries sustained to Mr. Crosson's hand as a consequence of the shooting. At the time of the shooting, Mr. Crosson was a Probationary Correction Officer. Mr. Crosson testified that on August 13, 1991, at about 4:00 a.m., he was in the passenger seat of a Volvo in which his deceased friend, Correction Officer Ronald Neischer, was in the driver's seat. They were parked outside of the Kingsborough housing projects, where they both lived. Mr. Crosson testified that as they were parked, two young black men approached the vehicle on bicycles with guns. Mr. Crosson testified that the men immediately asked Ronald Neischer to give up the car and shots were then fired. Ronald Neischer was shot by the individual on his side of the vehicle. After the shooting, the assailants got into the vehicle and drove away. The bicycles were left at the scene with blood spatter.

"Mr. Crosson could not recall on the stand the description he gave during the trial and prior of the man who shot him..."

"The third witness was William E.Hellerstein, a retired professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, who in the year 2000 established the Non-DNA Innocence Project at the law school. Mr. Hellerstein testified that he undertook an extensive in-depth examination principally of John Bunn's matter, the co-defendant, but also of the [Hargrove] case...Mr.Hellerstein stated that he was troubled about the case. He was attempting to get the bicycles from the case, but he was told they were unavailable.

"The fourth witness to testify was Mr. Edward Boyar, the [ADA] that was assigned to prosecute the case of co-defendant John Bunn and [Hargrove].

"Mr. Boyar confirmed that none of the fingerprints in the bicycles or the vehicle were connected to [Bunn or Hargrove]..."

"In 2007, Detective Louis Scarcella appeared on the Dr. Phil show, a popular daytime talk show. According to the testimony taken at the hearing, Scarcella stated on the show that there were no rules when it came to prosecuting homicide cases and that he did not play by the rules..."

[This statement is so staggeringly stupid on so many levels, that it beggars belief. First of all, it demonstrates absolute ignorance regarding the contless good reasons why proper procedures must always be followed -- especially in the most serious crimes, where the stakes are so high for everyone involved. The historical record clearly demonstrates that when corners are cut, innocent people are far more likely to get convicted; and by the way, the guilty will more often go free as well. Moreover, even if a 'detective' did hold such beliefs, how dumb would he have to be to brag about it on a nationally syndicated talk show?]

"The issue...in this case is the possible unreliability and compromised identification testimony of a witness prepared by Detective Scarcella. The conviction in this case is based solely on the identification of that one witness...[D]uring his trial testimony he described his assailants as two light-skinned black males in their twenties. Mr. Crosson is a black male. [Neither Bunn nor Hargrove] may be accurately described as 'light-skinned' black males.

"The testimony provided at the hearing by Scarcella was false, misleading and non-cooperative. At the hearing, Scarcella refused to acknowledge that he testified in [Hargrove's] pretrial hearing, although he was given the transcript of his testimony to read. He also refused to confirm that he was the detective assigned to [Hargrove's] case. He stated that it was his partner's case and that he did nothing of substance in the investigation...Scarcella did not recall being present at [Hargrove's] arrest or at the photo array prepared for the sole witness or testifying in the pretrial hearing...He stated that he did not remember the case and that nothing could refresh his recollection to contradict that it was not the case...When asked if he remembered the surviving witnesses's name Scarcella stated that he did not, but then said he knew the name because he did hear his name when he first appeared for this matter and he knew who Robert Crosson was...Scarcella admitted that he had spoken with his partner around a dozen times in preparation for this hearing. Scarcella was not forthright in his testimony, and even in the face of udisputed evidence, he refused to acknowledge the truth.

"Scarcella's partner, Detective Chmil, testified at the pretrial hearing that Scarcella was the detective assigned to [Hargrove's] case from the homicide squad.

"There is no evidence Crosson recognized [Hargrove] at the outset of the crime, although they lived in the same housing [complex] for over twenty years and he admitted to knowing [Hargrove's] family, with whom [Hargrove] lived. There were also allegations that Mr. Crosson was involved in some illegality that may have compromised his testimony.

"[Hargrove's] conviction is based solely on the identification photo array that was prepared by Detectives Scarcella and Chmil. Crosson identified [Hargrove] after a line-up organized by Scarcella and his partner, Detective Chmil. [Hargrove's] conviction is based exclusively on this identification by photos taken out of a drawer and placed in a photo array facilitated by Scarcella and his partner Detective Chmil. There were fingerprints taken from the bicycle that did not match either [Bunn or Hargrove]. There were fingerprints taken from inside and outside the vehicle that the assailants drove away in, none of which were [Bunn or Hargrove's] fingerprints. In twenty-three-plus years, the ballistics have not been tested. There is no fingerprint match, biological evidence, or an admission on which to base the conviction other than the one witnesses's identification. Scarcella was intrinsic to the identification array in this case, as he was present, setting up the photo array [and] line-up, and was in part responsible for the outcome as the assigned detective investigating and processing the case."

[Hargrove] 75 N.Y.S.3d 551; 2nd Dept. 4/18/18; above decision to vacate conviction affirmed

[29] "[Hargrove] has remained behind bars for more than two decades for a crime that he has consistently maintained he did not commt. [County] Court, on the basis of newly discovered evidence, vacated [Hargrove's] judgment of conviction and ordered a new trial.

"The [prosecution has] appealed from the [County] Court's order. While the issues implicated by this case represent some of the most pressing and contentious matters facing the criminal justice system today, the [prosecution has] chosen to focus their appeal on an array of procedural and evidentiary arguments, largely ignoring the underlying issues at stake."

[The above would also constitute an apt characterization of the Third Department's decision in Nickel's case. (See State Appeal. )]

"But these rules of procedure and evidence are not to be invoked for their own sake. They do not exist solely as an arsenal to be ranged against the accused or the imprisoned. They exist so that truth may emerge from their considered application. Indeed, it requires no earth-shattering pronouncement to state simply what centuries of jurisprudence make clear: that justice is the whole of the law.

"And although our institutions of law enforcement are the bedrock of our system of justice, they do not deserve our blind faith or allegiance. When we succumb to that temptation we abdicate our duty to ensure that justice is done in every case and under every circumstance. Society's allegiance and faith must be earned through our labors and costantly reaffirmed by our decisions. Recognition of our errors does not make our system weak, it makes it resilient. When we ignore our errors or seek to avoid confronting them, we imperil the very foundations of our legitimacy."

[This clarion decision was written by justices of the Appellate Division, Second Department. To our knowledge, the Third Department, which authored Nickel's appeal decision, has never penned such a jeremiad.]

National Registry of Exonerations; Exonerations in 2018

"John Bunn was 14 and Rosean Hargrave was 17 when they were arrested for murder in Brooklyn...They were among 31 men who were exonerated in 2018 after being falsely convicted on the basis of mistaken witness identifications.

"Both were convicted of the shooting that killed Rikers Island corrections officer Roland Neischer and wounded officer Robert Crosson. The primary evidence against them was the testimony of Crosson, who said he recognized them as the gunmen.

"Bunn and Hargrave became suspects based on the claim of New York police detective Louis Scarcella that he received an anonymous tip.* Hargrave was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, and Bunn was sentenced to 7 years to life in prison."**

[* As we have noted, so-called 'anonymous tips' quite often come from the very detectives 'investigating' the case in question.]

[** Note that Bunn was just fourteen years old when he was (wrongfully) convicted, not as a juvenile, but as an 'adult.' Had this same person been an alleged victim of child sex abuse, there would likely have been much (hypocritical) hand-wringing about how this poor 'child' had been irreparably damaged by the accused adult.]

"Both men were exonerated in 2018 following disclosures that Scarcella engaged in misconduct in numerous homicide cases that resulted in wrongful convictions.

"In ordering a new trial, Kings County...Court Justice ShawnDya Simpson declared, 'Scarcella has been regarded as a legend in the N.Y.P.D. for his number of homicide arrests. There is a saying, when it is too good to be true, it usually is. This new evidence of Detective Scarcella's maleficence requires a new trial.'

"By the end of 2018, a total of 14 men and women had been exonerated of their convictons based on Scarcella's misconduct."

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"Crosson...described the robbers as two light-skinned black men in their twenties."

"[The day after the crime]... Scarcella said he received an anonymous telephone call naming 17-year-old Rosean Hargrave as one of the gunmen and went to the housing project. Scarcella said he got off the elevator on the second floor and 'got lucky' -- he saw Hargrave and arrested him. Later that day, Scarcella, saying he was acting on another tip,* went to another apartment at the housing project and arrested 14-year-old John Bunn."

[* So, Scarcella says he 'got lucky' -- three times, really. Two 'anonymous tips' leading him right to the culprits, and he just happenede to run into one of them getting off the elevator. As has been noted elsewhere on this site, the police/detectives themselves are often the ones making such calls -- if/when, that is, such calls were even made. ] "Scarcella's partner, Stephen Chmil, created a photographic lineup. Crosson identified both men, saying that Bunn came to the driver side of the car and shot Neischer, and that Hargrave came to the passenger side and shot him in the hand. Bunn and Hargrave, who were not in ther twenties and were both dark-skinned, were charged with felony murder and felony assault."

"At the hospital, Crosson described the gunmen as light-skinned black men in their twenties. The one on the driver's side -- whom he later said was Bunn -- was 5 feet 9 inches or 5 feet 10 inches tall. He described the other robber -- whom he identified as Hargrave -- as light-skinned and in his twenties.

"Hargrove was about 5 feet 6 nches tall and Bunn was no more than 5 feet 3 inches tall. Both have dark skin.

"Crosson said he had never seen Bunn or Hargrave before, although he lived in the housing project where Bunn and Hargrave also lived. Crosson said that he knew Hargrave's mother and two of his sisters."

"On May 14, 2018, the prosecution dismissed the charges against Hargrave. The following day, May 15, 2018, the prosecution dismissed the charges against Bunn."

Logan, Roger; murder; NRE: mistaken witness identification, perjury/false accusation, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant

Suggestibility issues

S38 "A man who served 17 years for a Brooklyn murder that was vacated in 2014 at the request of the prosecutors will receive nearly $6.75 million under settlements with New York City and the State.

"[City Comptroller Scott] Stringer acknowledged Logan was 'wrongfully incarcerated' for the 1997 shooting of Sherwin Gibbons..."

"Brooklyn prosecutors concluded Logan's conviction was based largely on a questionable eyewitness account. The case was among those investigated by retired detective Louis Scarcella, who had been accused of generating faulty evidence or confessions."

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"On the evening of July 24, 1997, 18-year-old Sherwin Gibbons was fatally shot in the vestibule of the apartment building where he lived on Chauncey Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn..."

"Witnesses told police that Gibbons was drinking a beer with some friends when a man came in and shot him. Ten shots were fired in all.

"Nearly five months later, in December, police said that Aisha Jones, who lived in an apartment building near the shooting, identified 35-year-old Roger Logan as the gunman and picked him out of a lineup as the shooter. On December 12, 1997, Logan was charged with murder.

'"Logan went on trial in Kings County...in April 1998. Prosecutors argued that Logan had been at a dice game where someone stole his gold chain. According to the prosecution, Gibbons was shot in retaliation in a case of mistaken identity. Logan denied involvement in the crime.

"Logan's defense lawyers challenged Jones's identification of Logan, contending that Logan was viewed in a lineup with people of different races and different heights. The trial judge agreed, saying this lineup put a 'spotlight' on Logan, and barred testimony about the lineup.

"However, the judge allowed Jones to identify Logan in court after she testified that she had seen him throughout the day of the shooting, as early as noon. She said that she was on the street and saw Logan begin firing. She then said she ran to her nearby apartment building and upstairs to her apartment. She said she looked out the window and saw Logan fire the last of the 10 shots.

"On May 3, 1999, a jury convicted Logan of second-degree murder and he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

"In 2011, Kings County [DA] Charles Hynes created a Conviction Integrity Unit and invited defense attorneys to present cases in which innocent defendants may have been convicted."

"[In mid-2013], The New York Times published an article accusing [Detective Louis] Scarcella of misconduct in many investigations: fabricating evidence, coercing witnesses and concealing evidence of defendants' innocence. The report, along with a growing chorus of other news media, imprisoned defendants and defense lawyers, prompted the Kings County Conviction Integrity unit to begin to re-investigate 57 cases in which Scarcella was involved and more than 30 other murder cases in Brooklyn.

"Logan -- whose case was investigated by Scarcella -- learned about the inquiry in prison and wrote to the [DA's] Office and asked that his case be reviewed.

"Working under Kings County [DA] Ken Thompson, who defeated Hynes in his bid for re-election in the fall of 2013, the Conviction Integrity Unit reviewed Logan's case file and discovered a rap sheet for Jones showing that she was arrested at 4:30 p.m. on July 23 -- the day before Gibbons was killed. A review of all of Jones's records showed that the earliest she could have been freed from custody was 7 p.m.* on the day of the shooting -- casting grave suspicion on her claim that she had seen Logan several times prior to the shooting."

[* So, Jones had claimed that she saw Logan several times throughout the day of the shooting, beginning as early as noon. But since she wouldn't have been released from jail until at least 7 p.m. that day, she had to have been lying.]

"Had the information about Jones being in custody been disclosed to the defense and to the judge prior to trial, Jones's in-court identification likely would have been barred; at the very least, her credibility would have been undermined.

"The Conviction Integrity Unit then tracked down four people who were in the vestibule of the building where Gibbons was killed. Only one of them said he saw Logan at the scene, but that witness said Logan was not the shooter. The witness confirmed that a dice game had occurred a few days earlier and that Logan's chain had been stolen. But, the witness said that Logan had gotten it back and so there was no motive for retaliation. Two of these witnesses told investigators they were the ones who stole the chain and gave it back to Logan prior to the shooting.

"A Conviction Integrity Unit lawyer and investigator went to...the scene of the shooting, and re-enacted Jones's description of what she claimed she did that day. The investigator stood in the lobby and mimed gunshots and the lawyer tried to run to Jones's apartment. They determined that Jones's account was very unlikely because of the distance and the climb involved.

"Jones was interviewed in Pennsylvania, where she had moved, and she said she could have done it because she was a high school track athlete. When investigators noted that she was 5 feet 6 inches and weighed 170 pounds at the time,* she changed her story and said she saw the entire shooting while on the street."

[* If Aisha Jones ever really was an athlete, with that sort of body-mass-index, she wasn't doing any quick sprints up stairs at the time of the shooting.] "Based on the findings of the re-investigation, Logan was brought to Kings County...Court on June 3, 2014, where the prosecution asked that his conviction be vacated. The motion was granted, the prosecution dismissed the charge and Logan was released. He settled a claim for wrongful conviction against New York for $3.75 million and also received $2.98 million in compensation from the New York Court of Claims."

Moses, Sundhe; murder; NRE: false confession, perjury/false accusation, police officer misconduct, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant, misconduct in interrogation of exoneree

Suggestibility issues

[689:652]; 2nd Dept. 6/1/99; affirmed

"[T]he verdict of guilt was not against the weight of the evidence..."

94 N.Y.S.3d 540; Kings Cty. Ct. 1/11/18; motion to vacate granted

"In 1995, when...Moses was nineteen years old, he was charged [with numerous crimes stemming] from a shooting...wherein two males exited a vehicle and shot into a crowd of people. Four-year-old Shamone Johnson was struck by two bullets and died. [Three other people] were wounded.

"[Moses] was identified in a photo array by two eyewitnesses, Sharron Ivory and Octavia Moore. [Two days later,] Detective Louis Scarcella and another officer picked [Moses] up at his home...Thereafter, [he] was interviewed at the precinct by several teams of detectives without being read his Miranda warnings.* He initally denied participating in the homicide and offered the alibi that he would later offer at trial. During this time, he was the subject of a lineup. Moore identified [Moses] in the lineup, but was unable to identify him at trial. In a later lineup, Ivory...also identified [Moore] in the lineup, but was unable to identify [him] at trial."

[* Nickel was never read his Miranda rights.]

"Besides the pre-trial identifications by Moore and Ivory, the only other evidence pointing to [Moses] was an inculpatory statement that he allegedly made to Detective Joseph Falcone after being read Miranda warnings [nearly seven hours after the police had picked him up]."

[According to this supposed statement, Moses "fired one time into the crowd," and a second man fired 4-5 times.]

"[Moses], however, testified on his own behalf at trial and stated that his statement was coerced...[He] stated that Detective Scarcella and other detectives threatened him but only Detective Scarcella struck him in the face, choked him while pressing his head against a wall and blew cigar smoke in his face. [Moses] testified that the other detectives held him down...[He] also offered an alibi witness, the mother of a friend, who testified that [Moses] was in her apartment at the time of the homicide. [One of the shooting victims] testified that he selected a filler [i.e., not Moses] during one of [the] lineups.

"Since the trial, both witnesses [Ivory and Moore] have recanted, in whole or in part, their identification of [Moses] that was made prior to trial. Neither eyewitness identified [Moses] at trial.

"[At a 2017 hearing on the motion to vacate, Moses] offered the testimony of Terrance Morgan, who was acquitted of the murder in a separate trial, but convicted of criminal possession of a weapon.

"Morgan testified that...during the summer of 1995, after Ben O'Garra was murdered, a dispute began between his neighborhood and another rival Brooklyn neighborhood. The dispute resulted in numerous shootings between Morgan's housing project and the housing project where the person who was believed to have killed Ben lived.

"At some point, Morgan was asked to participate in a shooting in revenge for the death of Ben O'Garra...[H]e was picked up by a car and driven to Brownsville with an unknown 'younger dude' and Juju, a drug dealer he knew from the neighborhood. He stated that [Moses] was not with him in the car. According to Morgan, Juju was murdered after the shooting.

"Morgan gave a far more detailed confession to the police than the statement that [Moses] was alleged to have given.

"Morgan remained unequivocal in his statement that [Moses] was not involved in the shooting.

"At the [2017] hearing [on the motion to vacate,] Detective Scarcella was confronted with his involvement in numerous convictions that the Kings County [Court] has vacated, such as Jabbar Washington; Vanessa Gathers; John Bunn; Shabaka Shakur; Rosean Hargrove; Roger Logan; David Ranta; Derrick Hamilton; Robert Hill; Alvena Jenette; and Darryl Austin...[T]he purpose of the testimony was to demonstrate that [Moses] now had a good faith basis...to impeach Detective Scarcella. That impeachment testimony consists of actual findings in the judicial opinions in the cases cited above, as well as public statements issued by the [Kings Cty. DA] in support of motions to vacate some of these convictions. The nature of this impeachment testimony is well documented and consists of, for example, a determination by the Hon. Desmond Green in the case of People v. Lewis a.k.a. Shabaka Shakur, dated May 24, 2015, that Detective Scarcella has a 'propensity to embellish or fabricate statements.'"

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"On August 27, 1995, three men, one dribbling a basketball, strolled up to a public housing project in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn...Two of the men opened fire with handguns, killing four-year-old Shamone Johnson, who was roller skating. Four others were wounded: [an 8-year-old, a 13-year-old, a 16-year-old], and 19-year-old Alex Moore.

"The two gunmen got into a car where a third man was waiting and sped off."

"Moses was suspected after Larry Cole, who lived in the housing project where the shooting occurred, told police he had heard on the street that Moses was involved. Cole had a history with Moses, who lived in the same housing project. In 1989, Cole tossed boiling water on the then-13-year-old Moses, causing burns on his abdomen and arm. Moses's mother got an order of protection against Cole. Cole was also ordered to pay restitution, although he never did.

"On August 30, 1995, three days after the shooting, [NYPD] Detective Robert Schulman showed a photographic array containing Moses's photo to Sharron Ivory, a witness to the shooting. Schulman reported that Ivory identified Moses as one of the two gunmen.* Schulman also reported that Octavia Moore, another eyewitness, selected Moses's photograph as well."**

[* Though perhaps technically true, it's extremely misleading: After Ivory failed to recognize any of the gunmen, a detective pointed to Moses and told Ivory to select him. (See below.)]

[** Based on Moore's subsequent affidavit, Schulman must have been lying. (See below.)]

"On September 1, 1995, Schulman conducted a live lineup and reported that Octavia Moore identified Moses again...Moore's brother...who had been wounded, also viewed the lineup, but did not identify anyone. Schulman conducted a separate lineup that same day for Ivory and Alex Moore...Schulman said Ivory identified Moses, but Alex Moore identified a filler.

"Detective Joseph Falcone said that by the end of the day, Moses had confessed to being one of the gunmen. As a result, Moses was charged with second-degree murder, four counts of assault, and criminal possession of a weapon.

"Moses went on trial in April 1997. Octavia Moore testified that she identified the gunman as the person in the #1 spot in the lineup -- which was Moses. However, when asked if she saw the gunman in court, she said she did not. She testified that the person she identified was a light-skinned black man, unlike Moses, who had dark skin."*

[* This is very odd. If the above details are correct, the person she had identified in the lineup was Moses. So, how could she have 'mistaken' a dark-skinned black man for a light-skinned one?]

"When Ivory testified, he also said he did not see the gunman in the courtroom."*

[* Fishier still. It's quite unusual for one witness to have (supposedly) identified a suspect in an array or lineup, and then, not been able to identify that same person in court. But for this to be the case with two witnesses -- that's virtually unheard of.]

"Detective Falcone testified that he and his partner questioned Moses, who initially denied involvement in the shooting and claimed he was at the home of a friend, Raynelle Clinkscale, playing video games at the time of the shooting. Falcone testified that about 30 to 40 minutes into the interrogation, however, Moses admitted that he, Morgan, and a third man he did not know went to the housing project and committed the crime. He said that he and Morgan fired the shots while the third man drove a getaway car.

"Moses testified that at the time of his arrest, he was enrolled in commnity college. He said that he was at Raynelle's house at the time of the crime. After he appeared in the lineups, he was taken to an interrogation room where, during the course of the day, at least five different detectives took turns questioning him.

"Moses said that after repeatedly denying involvement, Detective Louis Scarcella struck him in the face. Other detectives held him down while Scarcella choked him. Moses said he was terrified because he did not know what else the detectives might do, so he ultimately admitted to the crime. He said that when he signed the statement -- which he had not prepared -- he tried to smudge his signature as a way of signaling that he was not acting voluntarily.

"Detective Scarcella testified that his only involvement in the case was to arrest Moses on the orders of his superiors. He claimed he left the station around 11 a.m. that day and was not present when Moses signed the statement.

"Clinkscale's mother, Renee Flowers, testified that she came to her father's apartment that day and found Clinkscale and Moses playing video games. She made dinner and they all left her apartment shortly after 10 p.m. -- hours after the shooting had occurred.

"On April 14, 1997, the jury convicted Moses..."

"His appeals were unsuccessful. However, in May 2013, the [Brooklyn DA's] Office wrote to Sundhe that his conviction was under review by the office's conviction review unit because of Scarcella's involvement."

"On December 3, 2013, Moses was released on parole, despite his refusal to admit involvement in the crime. Moses's lawyers, Ron Kuby and Leah Busby, presented the evidence of Scarcella's involvement as well as recantations by Octavia Moore and Sharron Ivory to the parole board.

"Moore signed an affidavit saying that contrary to her testimony at trial, she never identified anyone positively. Rather, she had said one of the men in the lineup 'looked familiar.' When she got to court, she realized that the man she said was familiar was not Moses. <> "Ivory also signed an affidavit saying that when he was shown the photographic lineup, he did not see either of the gunmen. However, the detective pointed to Moses and told him to pick him out. Ivory said that when he came to court, he refused to identify Moses because he felt he was no longer under the control of the police or the prosecution."

"In July 2015, Kuby filed a motion to vacate Moses's convictions, citing the evidence of Scarcella's misconduct as well as the recantations of Sharron Ivory and Octavia Moore. In addition, Terrence Morgan provided a sworn statement admitting that he was involved in the shooting and that Moses was not involved. Morgan said that the other gunman was a man he knew as 'Juju,' who had been murdered a few years after the shooting.

"Morgan said the shooting was in retaliation for the murder of Benjamin 'Killer Ben' O'Garro on August 17, 1995 -- 10 days earlier. O'Garro was fatally shot standing at a pay phone in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. According to Morgan, O'Garro was murdered because he stole jewelry from rapper Notorious B.I.G. at an awards ceremony."

"In January 2018, [Brooklyn] Justice Dineen Riviezzo granted the motion for a new trial and vacated Moses's convictions. The judge ruled that had the evidence of Scarcella's misconduct been presented to the jury in Moses's trial, he might have been acquitted."

"On February 16, 2018, the prosecution dismissed the charges."

"Moses received a $3.7 million settlement from the City of New York in 2019. He also filed a claim in the New York Court of Claims which he settled in 2020 for $3,500,000."

Ranta, David; murder; NRE: mistaken witness identification, false confession, perjury/false accusation, police officer misconduct, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant; "OVERWHELMING"

Suggestibility issues

K18 "In 1991, David Ranta was convicted for the shooting death of Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger in a botched diamond heist..."

"In the early morning of Feb. 8, 1990, Chaim Weinberger, a diamond courier, left his Brooklyn apartment..."

"He was approached by a gunman but escaped unharmed. The gunman then crossed the street to the car where Werzberger was sitting...The gunman shot the rabbi once in the head, pulled his body from the vehicle and sped off.

"Two New York City detectives, Louis Scarcella and Steven Chmil, were put on the case.

"Shortly after the crime, police got an anonymous call that a man named Joseph Astin was the killer. Astin died in a car crash two months after the shooting. Astin was fleeing officers pursuing him in connection with the shooting.

"Scarcella brought Weinberger, the courier, to the morgue to see if he could identify Astin's body, and when Weinberger could not, Scarcella stopped chasing leads on Astin.

"Intead, the detectives were informed that two inmates awaiting trial on unrelated robbery charges, Dmitry Drikman and Alan Bloom, could have useful information on the crime.

"Bloom, who has since died, fingered Ranta as the shooter, and Ranta was arrested in 1990.

"Weinberger, the courier, could not identify anyone at the first of two line-ups and three other witnesses pointed to stand-ins, not Ranta.

"At a second line-up, three youths, including Menachem Lieberman, who said they saw the shooter waiting in a car before the crime occurred, identified Ranta.

"Bloom, who was granted immunity, acted as the government's chief witness at trial..."

"Scarcella admitted he had not taken any notes during interviews of Bloom and Drikman. At one point, the presiding judge...expressed concern about his mistrust of the detectives to the defense and the prosecution, but never charged the jury [i.e., told them about] the issue.

"Astin's wife, Teresa, later came forward saying Astin had confessed to the crime.

"Lieberman, the witness who expressed discomfort at his identification of Ranta, told [subsequent Conviction Integrity Unit] investigators that just before entering the line-up room, a detective told him to 'pick the guy with the big nose' and he acted accordingly."

K17 "After spending some 23 years in prison for a murder he says he did not commit, David Ranta walked out of a courtroon a free man yesterday after prosecutors conceded the evidence against him had 'degraded' to the point that they could no longer prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

"Ranta was convicted in 1991 for the high-profile shooting of a prominent ultra-Orthodox religious leader, Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger. But a fresh look at the case by the Brooklyn [DA's] Conviction Integrity Unit disclosed that a man who had once identified Ranta as the killer now felt 'discomfort' about his testimony, and others admitted they had fabricated statements fingering Ranta..."

[610:283]; 2nd Dept. 4/4/94; affirmed

"Although the police admittedly violated certain court orders, the police conduct challenged by [Ranta] was not so egregious as to 'manifest a disregard for cherished principles of law and order'...Given the overwhelming evidence of [Ranta's] guilt..."

[The Second Department 'justices' who signed off on this were Albert M. Rosenblatt, David S. Ritter, Vincent Pizzuto, and Myrian J. Altman. ]

from Records and Briefs:

[1] "Drikman gave Detective Scarcella information leading him to believe Mr. Ranta was involved in the case...However, he had no indication why Drikman would have such information or if Drikman was present at the scene of the crime ...Detective Scarcella claimed that Drikman picked out photos of Mr. Ranta and an individual named Steven Shakur and indicated these individuals were involved in the shooting..."

[3] "On July 13, 1990, [when Scarcella and Chmil first interviewed Bloom ], Bloom did not state that he witnessed the attempted robbery, saw anyone being dragged from a car, heard shots fired, or that he was present when the Rabbi was shot..."

"After receiving this information, Detective Scarcella spoke with members of Shakur's family who maintained Shakur was in Yugoslavia on [the day of the murder]... Despite the family's claim that Shakur was not in the country, they possessed Shakur's passport...Detective Scarcella did not attempt to verify the family's claims by examining the passport to see if it was stamped, thereby denoting entry into Yugoslavia on or near the dates in question...The detective also failed to show Shakur's photograph to any of the eyewitnesses ...The detectives' actions troubled the court...After hearing this testimony, the court raised the issue of selective prosecution on the part of the detectives..."

"Bloom's version of the events was not always consistent...Although Bloom gave consistent versions of the events on June 28, 1990, and July 13, 1990, at which time he implicated Shakur, four days later, on July 17, 1990, he told a different story."

[6] "After the detectives told Bloom they could not find Shakur, Bloom changed his story. The actions he attributed to Shakur four days earlier...he now attributed to Mr. Ranta* ...Bloom now alleged he sat double-parked...and smoked crack while he watched the events unfold. Bloom remained on the opposite side of the street two hundred feet away from where the crimes occurred. Yet, he claimed he was able to see the events transpire through his rearview mirror. ** "

[* It seems quite obvious that it was Scarcella who changed Bloom's story, when this 'detective' was greatly inconvenienced by the fact that (surprise, surprise) the alleged killer couldn't be found. ] [** That's preposterous, and would be laughable but for the fact it led to Ranta wrongfully spending decades in prison. No one can identify anyone via a rearview mirror from 200 feet away.] [7] "Bloom claimed he then heard two shots...However, Rabbi Werzberger was only shot once. There was absolutely no evidence of a second shot."

[8] "Drikman said he knew the identity of the individuals involved in the crime and the location of the murder weapon. Yet Bloom and the detectives claimed Drikman took no part in the crimes. Nothing was done to corroborate Drikman's non-involvement or to rule him out as the killer."

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"At about 5:30 a.m. on February 8, 1990, 38-year-old Chaim Weinberger, a jewelry courier, left his apartment building in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn...carrying a 50-pound suitcase full of diamonds and other valuables he was taking to the Dominican Republic. Weinberger noticed a tall blond man eyeing him as he left his apartment building and when he got near his car, he saw the man following him. He tossed the suitcase into the trunk and got into his car to get away.

"The blond man put a handkerchief over his face and drew a pistol as he approached. Weinberger drove in reverse, knocked the robber down and sped off.

"The robber then noticed Chaskel Werzberger, a 56-year-old rabbi, warming up his car nearby. The gunman walked over, shot Werzberger in the head, yanked him out of the vehicle and drove off. Werzberger died three days later. His car was found in another Brooklyn neighborhood a day after the shooting, splashed with paint in an apparent attempt to cover fingerprints.

"The murder of the esteemed rabbi shocked a city accustomed to murders and a $10,000 reward was offered for information.

"A number of witnesses told police that they saw the events in full or in part. Weinberger described the gunman as being between 5'11" and 6'0" tall, clean-shaven and with blonde hair. Several other witnesses recalled that prior to the crime they saw two men in a station wagon parked nearby, one in the driver's seat and the other in the front passenger's seat.

"More than one hundred names surfaced as potential suspects, including Thomas Joseph Astin, who police learned of through an anonymous telephone call. But Astin died in a car crash while being pursued by police on April 2, 1990. After his death, detectives brought Weinberger to the morgue to view Astin's body, but Weinberger was unable to identify him as the robber.

"Beginning in June 1990, Detective Louis Scarcella interviewed Dmitry Drikman, a convicted rapist facing robbery charges. Drikman pointed the detective to Allan Bloom, a convicted robber and drug addict, who was in jail facing charges that could send him to prison for life. After several conversations with Bloom, the detective said that Bloom had admitted that he attempted to rob Weinberger with 35-year-old David Ranta, an unemployed house painter with more than a dozen arrests for theft, robbery and drug possession.

"Drikman and Bloom were then housed in the same cell together and subsequently, Drikman also implicated Ranta in the crime. Drikman's girlfriend was then interviewed and she told police she had seen Ranta and Bloom plotting how to cover up the attempted robbery and murder.

"Bloom would ultimately testify against Ranta after being granted immunity for his involvement in the robbery and murder and a promise for a reduced sentence on his outstanding robbery charges. He told the police that he had helped to plan the robbery of Weinberger and said Ranta, whom he had known for a few years, was an accomplice, as was another man named Steven Shakir.* Bloom said he left before anything happened and did not know who the gunman was, but he said that Shakir had a gun."

[* The Records and Briefs above spell this surname 'Shakur.' It's not clear which is correct.]

"After he failed a polygraph test, Bloom changed his story to say that not only did he see the crimes, but that Ranta was the gunman. Bloom would later say that he lied about Shakir's involvement. He also said that on the night before the crimes he had been with Drikman.

"Bloom said that he had stolen the station wagon that several witnesses had observed at the crime scene prior to the crimes, and that he had used the station wagon to drive himself and Ranta to the crime scene. He said Ranta approached Weinberger, pointed a gun at him and attempted to rob him. Bloom told police that he was supposed to be the getaway driver, but that after Ranta left the car, a police car drove by so he moved the car about 10 feet further away. As a result, Bloom said, Ranta didn't immediately spot the car after the botched robbery attempt and apparently decided to steal Werzberger's car.

"Bloom said Ranta ran across the sreet, fired his gun twice, pulled the rabbi from his car and fled.

"Bloom said he met Ranta later that day, took Werzberger's car and abandoned it in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. Bloom said that later, he and Drikman returned to Werzberger's car and splashed white paint on the interior to obscure any fingerprints. Bloom passed the polygraph test administered after his second statement.

"Two others corroborated Bloom. Cheryl Herbert told the police that she had been in a relationship with Ranta and that prior to her birthday in February, he told her he was expecting to come into possession of some nice jewelry. Herbert told police Ranta later told her that he was in a lot of trouble because he had participated in a robbery with two others and that they had abandoned him and as a result, he had to kill someone.

"Alison Picciano told the police that Ranta had admitted to her that he had pulled Werzberger from his car and shot him while he was on the ground.

"Ranta was arrested on August 13, 1990 and taken to a police station where detectives said that after initial denials, Ranta eventually admitted that he had been at the crime scene with Bloom and Drikman in a station wagon, which he believed Bloom had stolen. Police said Ranta said that he had known about a plan to rob a Jewish jewel courier and that he was to have been the 'lookout' during the robbery. The detectives said Ranta said he saw Bloom and Drikman exchange a gun in the station wagon and that, before any of the crimes occurred, he head left the scene when Bloom and Drikman began arguing about which one of them was going to commit the actual robbery.

"Ranta was placed in a lineup the following day. Scarcella reached out to a rabbi who came to the station with six witnesses. The first witness, Weinberger -- who had been the initial target of the robbery -- didn't recognize anyone. The next two witnesses identified someone other than Ranta.

"The fourth witness, who spoke only Yiddish and required an interpreter initially said he didn't recognize anyone. The witness was then escorted to a nearby room with Detective Scarcella, a prosecutor and the interpreter. A tape recorder which was recording the lineup conversation was turned off and then turned back on as the witness said that, in fact, he had identified the man in position six -- which was Ranta.

"The fifth witness identified Ranta and the sixth witness identified another man in the lineup.

"A second lineup was held later that day. Three more witnesses came in and all three identified Ranta.

"Despite what police said Ranta had admitted, Ranta took and passed a polygraph examination.

"Ranta went on trial in [Manhattan] in May 1991.

"Bloom testified, as did Herbert and Picciano, portraying Ranta as the gunman. Bloom told the jury that when he and Ranta met later in the day after the crime, Ranta said, 'Why did you leave me? I had to kill someone.'

"Picciano testified that Ranta told her, 'I had to do what I had to do. I shot him.'

"Ranta's statement to the police was presented to the jury as well -- though it portrayed him as an accomplice instead of the gunman. The trial judge was critical of Detective Scarcella for failing to tape record Ranta's statement or take any notes and for failing to take any notes of his conversations with Drikman and Bloom. "The defense tried to suggest that Drikman was the gunman and that Ranta was innocent. Weinberger testified that Ranta was not the gunman.

"On May 22, 1991, Ranta was convicted by a jury. He was sentenced to 37-1/2 years to life in prison.

"His initial appeal was denied, but in 1996, Astin's wife signed a sworn affidavit saying that her husband, before he was killed in a car crash, had admitted that he killed Werzberger. She said that Astin left their home at 4 a.m. on the day of the crime and returned later in tears, saying he had robbed someone carrying jewelry and that someone had been hurt.

"Despite this affidavit, Ranta's motion for a new trial was denied. The judge said that Astin's wife's credibility was damaged because she was facing a drug charge* at the time she made the claim."

[* Recall that " Allan Bloom, a convicted robber and drug addict, who was in jail facing charges that could send him to prison for life," was nevertheless deemed sufficiently 'credible' to base this entire investigation on. Moreover, whereas Bloom stood to benefit immensely from testifying as he did, Astin's wife had absolutely nothing to gain by coming forward.]

"In 2011, Kings County [DA] Charles Hynes created a Conviction Integrity Unit and invited defense lawyers to present cases where they believed innocent defendants had been convicted. One of the cases proffered was Ranta's.

"The Integrity Unit began re-investigating. One of the witnesses who identified Ranta in the lineup said the lead police detective, Louis Scarcella, told him to pick 'the guy with the big nose,' so he picked Ranta because he had the biggest nose.

"The prosecution investigators discovered that during the weeks when police were interrogating Bloom and Drikman, both were allowed to leave jail, smoke crack cocaine and have sex with prostitutes in return for implicating Ranta.

"Drikman and his girlfriend recanted their accounts that implicated Bloom and Ranta. Bloom had since died.

"Ranta's lawyer, armed with the new evidence, filed a motion to vacate Ranta's conviction. The motion was not opposed by Kings County [DA] Charles Hynes, who was the [DA] when Ranta was arrested 23 years earlier.

"On March 21, 2013, Ranta was flown from his prison to a Brooklyn courtroom where his convictions were vacated and the charges were dismissed. He was then released.

"In May 2013, Ranta filed a $150 million wrongful conviction claim against the city of New York. In February 2014, the city settled the claim for $6.4 million. He also received $2 million in compensation from the New York Court of Claims."

Hamilton, Derrick; murder; NRE: perjury/false accusation, inadequate legal defense, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant

S31 "In 1993, Derrick Hamilton was put on trial for murder. His defense rested on alibi witnesses, who ultimately did not appear at trial -- one due to illness, the other out of fear.

"Before sentencing, a motion was made to set aside the verdict based on the recantation of the prosecution's chief witness, the victim's girlfriend. The witness now asserted that she was not present at the crime scene and testified under duress. A defense witness materialized who confirmed it.

"But in the face of the investigating detective's testimony, the hearing judge did not find her recantation credible. So the conviction stood.

"In the following year, Hamilton filed the first of his post-conviction motions. He put forward a newly discovered eyewitness who claimed that [Hamilton] did not commit the crime.

"In addition, Hamilton sought to include the testimony of two new alibi witnesses not noticed [i.e., announced ]...or available at trial. They both placed [Hamilton] in Hartford, Conn. at the time of the crime. However, the trial court would not expand the motion hearing to allow the new witnesses to testify.

"The judge did not credit the eyewitness and found the new alibi witness procedurally barred from being heard. Following denial of his direct appeal and appeal from the post-conviction motion, Hamilton filed...motions about evidence of alternate suspects relayed to the police before trial that were also denied."

K13 "A Brooklyn man who said he was framed by a detective, which led to a wrongful murder conviction and more than 20 years of incarceration, has been cleared of the crime after prosecutors deemed the case's sole eyewitness unreliable.

"Brooklyn [ADA] Mark Hale told...Justice Raymond Guzman the prosecution could no longer stand by Derrick Hamilton's conviction for the 1991 shooting.

"The lone eyewitness, Jewel Smith, was 'as a whole unreliable, incredible, and for the most part untruthful,' said Hale, adding that using her as a witness violated Hamilton's procedural due process rights.

"Hamilton, now 49, was paroled from state prison in 2011.

"The vacatur is the latest in a growing list of convictions that [DA] Kenneth Thompson has deemed unjust. Since Thompson became the borough's top prosecutor last year, his office has undone 10 convictions and dropped the appeal of a habeas grant to an 11th man.

"Embattled detective Louis Scarcella, now retired, worked on four of those cases, including Hamilton's.

"The Conviction Review Unit still has about 100 more cases to review, 70 of which are linked to Scarcella. It is one of the nation's most ambitious efforts to determine whether old cases were handled properly.

"In a statement, Thompson said, 'The people of Brooklyn elected me to ensure that justice is done and that is what my decision reflects.' He said his office reviewed the crime scene, as well as medical and scientific evidence before concluding the witness account was unreliable.

"The underlying case arose from the fatal shooting of Nathaniel Cash in Bedford Stuyvesant. At the scene of the shooting, Jewel Smith, who was Cash's girlfriend, had told a detective that she had not seen the shooter. Hamilton said Scarcella pressured her into changing her story."

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"Shortly after midnight on January 24, 1991, 26-year-old Nathaniel Cash was fatally shot at his apartment building...in Brooklyn...."

"Cash's girlfriend, Jewel Smith, told Detective Frank DeLouisa that she had bailed Cash out of jail on January 3 and spent time with him at his apartment before going to a store. When she returned, he was lying on the ground after being shot.

"Smith changed her account, however, to implicate 25-year-old Derrick Hamilton in the shooting. She later said that Detective Louis Scarcella told her that if she did not accuse Hamilton she would be charged with the crime herself. Hamilton had been paroled in August 1990 --about four months before Cash was killed -- after serving a seven-year prison term for convictions of manslaughter, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon.

"In March 1991, the police arrested Hamilton in New Haven, Connecticut at a hair salon that Hamilton jointly owned with Alphonso White. Hamilton was charged with second-degree murder.

"Hamilton went to trial in Kings County...in July 1992. Smith identified Hamilton as the gunman. She said Hamilton shot Cash and Cash chased after Hamilton before he collapsed.

"The defense had listed two alibi witnesses, but neither were called. One of the witnesses, Mattie Dixon, the wife of Alphonso White, later said that she and her husband, Alphonso, did not testify because police in New Haven, for whom White had acted as an informant in the past, threatened to arrest Alphonso if they testified for Hamilton in Brooklyn. In fact, Dixon later said in a sworn affidavit, she and her husband had collected hotel records showing that Hamilton was at a New Haven hotel at the time of the crime.

"On July 7, 1992, a jury convicted Hamilton of second-degee murder. Before sentencing, Smith recanted her testimony, and the defense learned for the first time about a statement she gave to police under the name 'Karen Smith' in which she said that she was not present when Cash was shot. At an evidentiary hearing on the motion to vacate the conviction, Smith testified she only implicated Hamilton after Scarcella told her she would be charged with the murder if she did not change her account.

"The motion was denied in 1993 and Hamilton was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

"Over the next two decades, Hamilton filed a series of motions attempting to overturn his conviction, but all were denied.

"In 1994, he sought to vacate the conviction on the basis of an affidavit from a witness who said that two other men -- Amir Johnson and 'Money Will' -- shot Cash. In 1995, while that motion was pending, two more witnesses came forward and said Hamilton was at a going-away party at a hotel in New Haven for a man who was going to prison.

"One of the witnesses, Kelly Turner, was working as a talent agent at the time of the crime but had since become a decorated police officer in New Haven. She provided a sworn statement that she was with Hamilton at the party until 1 or 2 a.m. -- well after the shooting in Brooklyn. The other witness, Davette Mahan, said she was Turner's assistant and that she also saw Hamilton and Turner together, discussing business, at the party.

"Hamilton sought to expand his motion to vacate the conviction to include Turner and Mahan, but the judge refused because Turner and Mahan were not on Hamilton's alibi witness list prior to trial.

"An evidentiary hearing was held on the claim that Amir Johnson and 'Money Will' shot Cash, but the judge said the witness was not credible and denied the motion.

"In 1998, another hearing was held with testimony from an additional witness who said 'Money Will' shot Cash. That witness also was not believed.

"In 2009, Hamilton filed a motion seeking a new hearing to allow Turner and Mahan to testify in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing witnesses to testify to actual innocence if they had not been previously allowed to testify. The prosecution opposed that motion as procedurally barred. While the motion was still pending, two more witnesses came forward to corroborate Turner and Mahan's statements.

"One of those witnesses was Mattie Dixon, the wife of Alphonso White (who had since died). Dixon provided hotel records showing that she and her husband had rented a room for Hamilton at the hotel on the night of the party and that a banquet room was reserved for that night. In a sworn affidavit, Dixon said that the detective for whom her husband worked as an informant became angry for [him] 'being Derrick's alibi' and that the detective told them to 'forget about Derrick Hamilton' or go to jail.

"In August 2011, the motion for a hearing to allow the witnesses to testify was denied. In December 2011, Hamilton was released from prison on parole after previously being denied parole because he would not admit that he committed the murder."

"Earlier in 2011, Kings County [DA] Chares Hynes created a Conviction Integrity Unit and invited defense attorneys to present cases in which innocent defendants may have been convicted."

"[Around mid-2013], The New York Times published an article accusing Scarcella of misconduct in many investigations: fabricating evidence, coercing witnesses and concealing evidence of defendants' innocence...The report prompted the Brooklyn Conviction Integrity Unit to begin to re-investigate 57 cases in which Scarcella was involved.

"In January 2014, the Appellate Division...in an unprecedented ruling, reversed the trial court in Hamilton's case. The appeals court eliminated a procedural barrier to criminal appellate claims to allow an assertion of 'actual innocence' to be heard. Hamilton's case was remanded to the Kings County...Court for a hearing.

"At that time, Kenneth Thompson, the newly-elected Kings County [DA], assigned the case to his Conviction Review Unit. In January 2015, Thompson concluded, on the basis of a re-investigation of the case, that Hamilton was innocent.

"The re-investigation showed that the medical evidence contradicted Smith's claim that Cash was shot in the chest and then chased after the man who shot him. In fact, the medical examiner's office said Cash was shot in the back and that the nature of the wound was such that he would have died almost instantly. In addition, ballistics showed that more than one gun was used in the shooting.

"On January 9, 2015, Thompson and Hamilton's defense lawyer jointly asked that Hamilton's conviction be vacated. The motion was granted and the charge was dismissed.

"By that time, the review had expanded to about 100 murder cases in Brooklyn, including about 60 of Scarcella's cases.

"Hamilton subsequently filed a claim for compensation with the New York Court of Claims and in 2016 received $3.75 million. In 2015, Hamilton filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking damages for his wrongful conviction. In November 2019, he settled the lawsuit against the cities of New York and New Haven for $7 million."

Williams, Shawn; murder; NRE: perjury/false accusation, inadequate legal defense, prosecutor misconduct, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant, perjury by official

Suggestibility issues [642:557]; 2nd Dept. 5/6/96; affirmed

"[W]e are satisfied that the verdict of guilt was not against the weight of the evidence..."

N16 "[A]fter serving about 25 years in prison, [Williams] walked away a free man July 13 [of 2018]...On July 13...Brooklyn...Justice Shannon Hudson granted a motion to vacate Williams' conviction and dismiss the original indictment, ordering his immediate release. Williams, who was convicted for the 1993 shooting of Marvin Mason, is the latest defendant tied to former Brooklyn detective Louis Scarcella whose conviction has been overturned...Shawn's conviction rested on testimony from a sole eyewitness, Margaret Smith, who claimed that she had seen Williams at the scene with a gun around the time of the killing, even though it was midnight and she was looking down from her sixth-story window,* more than 100 feet away...In 2013...Smith recanted her testimony, stating that she had been coerced by Scarcella into naming Williams..."

[* Yet again, we have a supposed 'identification' of a person at street-level by someone looking out a window from several stories up -- here, at midnight, no less. That's absurd. The fact that any jury or judge would buy that is an indictment of their extreme gullibility.]

"[T]he defense team also found evidence placing Williams in Pennsylvania at the time of the murder..."

from Records and Briefs:

"When Officer [John] Salerno...arrived on the scene, he saw Mason lying down in a pool of his own blood, with a single gunshot wound to the head. [from FN2: The bullet entered above Mason's left eye and traveled toward the back of the head, from left to right...The bullet and copper jacket...were recovered from the brain tissue..Because there was stippling near the wound, [Dr. Stephen] Doroux concluded that the gun was no more than two feet from the decedent's head when it was fired.] Mason's [4] backpack or knapsack, which was on the lobby floor near his body, had been opened and its contents strewn about..."

"Margaret Smith...was in her sixth-floor apartment bedroom talking on the telephone with a friend when she heard the gunshot...At the time, she was sitting on the windowsill bench, from [5] which she had a view of Eastern Parkway...About two minutes before she heard the shot, she had seen her neighbor, Marvin Mason, enter the building..."

"'Damn, is that a shot?,' Smith said to her friend on the telephone, as she leaned on the window sill and looked down to the street below...She saw two young men emerge from the building; one was wearing black pants and a shirt with horizontal stripes, while the other wore black pants and a plain white shirt...The young man in the striped shirt, whom Smith claimed she recognized as [Williams], was putting a gun into his waistband..."

"Smith... [6] maintained that she knew [Williams] from the neighborhood; she also said she knew his nickname, Murdock..."

"After the building, the two young men turned left and headed down the block in the direction of Buffalo Avenue...The two young men, who were standing near a lamppost, turned around and looked back at the building; Smith claimed that before they ran out she could clearly make out that one of the two was [Williams]..."

[14] "Smith testified that when the two men, who by then walked down the block, turned to look back in her direction, she could clearly recognize [Williams]...[I]t is implausible that Smith's ability to see the young men would get better the further away they walked."

from NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"Shortly after mdnight on July 9, 1993, 18-year-old Marvin Mason was shot to death during an apparent robbery in the lobby of the building where he lived on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn...Several witnesses reported seeing two men run from the building, but none were able to identify them.

"Edmond Adams and Vanessa Wagner, who were sitting on a bench across the street, said they saw two men flee. Adams said one was 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 4 inches tall, and the other was 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall.

"At about 9 a.m., New York police detectives Louis Scarcella and Steven Chmil came to the Mason family apartment. Based upon his inquiries in the neighborhood, Mason's brother, Christopher, gave the detectives the name 'Murdock,' as one of the robbers. 'Murdock' was the nickname of 19-year-old Shawn Williams.

"Scarcella and Chmil created a photo lineup that included Willliams's photo. However, no one was able to identify him. The detectives visited the sixth-floor apartment of Margaret Smith, a building resident, that evening. She said from her apartment window she saw two men run away, but was unable to identify them. She said she recognized Williams from the neighborhood, but not as one of the robbers.

"The two detectives would later testify that based on a 'vibe' that Smith might know more than she was revealing, they returned to her apartment on July 27, 1993. Chmil also later testified that during this interview, Smith identified Williams as one of the robbers.

"Subsequently, another detective said that he spoke to Kenyatta Moore, who was in a police lockup. Moore disclosed that on July 11, two days after the murder, he heard Williams bragging about shooting Mason. Moore gave the same account under oath to a grand jury that indicted Williams for the murder.

"On October 1, according to the detectives, Smith identified Williams in a photo array and in a live lineup. Williams was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, although he was 6 feet tall -- at least half a foot taller than the description given by Edmond Adams.

"At the time Williams was arrested, he told Scarcella he was in Reading, Pennsylvania at the time of the murder. Williams said he had been arrested for drinking beer in public on July 2, 1993 and provided a false name to police. Scarcella claimed he looked for a record of that arrest and found none.

"On August 10, 1994, Williams went to trial in [Brooklyn]. Scarcella and Chmil testified that Christopher Mason gave them the nickname 'Murdock,' and how their 'vibe' led them to visit Smith when she first identified Williams.

"Smith was the only witness to identify Williams. She said she was sitting on the windowsill of her sixth-floor apartment talking on the phone when she heard the gunshot. She said she recognized Williams when he stopped under a streetlight. She said she saw his face when he looked up and laughed, and that she recognized him from a scar on his neck.

"However, in contrast to the detectives' testimony, Smith said her identification came during the first visit by the detectives on July 9, the same day of the shooting, not on July 27. She also said she -- not Christopher Mason -- first mentioned the nickname 'Murdock' to detectives. She said she had 'no doubt' that she told the detectives on that first day to look for 'Murdock.'

"Vanessa Wagner testified that she heard a loud noise and saw two young men flee from the scene. She did not identify Williams.

"On August 16, 1994, the jury convicted Williams..."

"In May 1996, the Appellate Division upheld the conviction..."

"In August 2013, the New York law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen LLP & Hamilton, along with the Legal Aid Society of New York, began representing Williams. Working with Kroll, Inc., an investigative agency, the legal team located and interviewed Smith. In her first meeting with Cleary and Kroll, Smith said Scarcella and Chmil coerced her to falsely identify Williams. Smith also confirmed that in about 2009, Williams, with the help of a relative, was able to telephone Smith. She told him that her testimony was false and coerced, and urged him to send someone to interview her.

"Smith said Scarcella and Chmil coerced her to falsely identify Williams. Smith signed a sworn affidavit that 'at no time' did she see any faces or physical characteristics of anyone leaving the scene of the shooting. She said that when Scarcella and Chmil came to her home to show her the photographic lineup, they 'moved very quickly through the book of photographs' until they 'stopped on a page, pointed to a particular photograph' and said that was 'Murdock.'

"Smith said that she did not recognize Williams from the photos, did not see him the night of the murder, and did not know his name or any nickname he had. She said the detectives told her that Williams was the killer.

"She admited she falsely identified Williams, but said she felt pressured to do what she believed the detectives wanted her to do. Smith also said she only identified Williams in the live lineup because she had already seen his photograph.

"Smith also disclosed that at the time of the trial, she lived in Georgia and did not want to testify. Police came to her home with a material witness order. She was taken to a Georgia court where she said she was arrested and jailed briefly. After her release, the officers came to her house and escorted her 'against my will, to New York by plane.' She concluded that she had to falsely testify against Williams so that the police and prosecution would let her alone.

"Smith said Scarcella and Chmil told her that 'several individuals (incuding another eyewitness) had informed them that Murdock was the individual who killed Marvin Mason.' However, no other witnesses gave such testimony."*

[* So, Scarcella and Chmil lied to her. But even if they had been telling the truth, this would still have been improper, because it would have been immensely suggestive.]

"After speaking with Smith, Cleary undertook a search for the material witness order in the materials provided by the Brooklyn [DA's] Office, but could not find it. Cleary asked the Brooklyn [DA's] Office to review their files, and a material witness order for Smith, dated August 2, 1994, was located. There was no evidence the order was ever disclosed to the defense at Williams's trial. Indeed, Williams had no recollection of ever being told of a material witness order for Smith.

"Williams's legal team retained Dr. Geoffrey Loftus, a University of Washington psychology professor specializing in memory. Loftus reviewed Smith's testimony at the trial and concluded it was unreliable and flawed. He said, 'Ms. Smith, from her window, would have been looking almost straight down at the subject. . .From this angle, Ms. Smith would almost certainly have only been able to see the top of the subject's head.' Loftus concluded that 'scientific evidence indicates it is highly unlikely that Ms. Smith could have been able to accurately perceive or memorize the subject's appearance given the lighting and distance under which the purported identification was made.'

"In addition, Erick Hylton, a former U.S. Marine who moved into Smith's apartment in 1993 (the same year as Mason's murder) and was still residing there, spoke to investigators. He said that he would not have been able to recognize anyone on the street -- even if he already knew the person -- because the street lighting was so poor.

"Williams's legal team also looked into his statement to Scarcella at the time of his arrest that he was in Reading, Pennsylvania at the time of the murder, and had been arrested on July 2 for drinking beer and provided a false first name. Athough Scarcella claimed he was unable to find the record, a search in 2014 turned up an arrest report for 'Tony Williams' at the exact time and location that Williams said he had been arrested. In addition, the legal team found medical records showing that Williams had received treatment at a hospital in Reading on July 11, 1993 -- two days after the murder.

"In May 2014, after getting Smith's recantation, Williams's legal team informed the conviction review unit at the Brooklyn [DA's] office. In 2015, the lawyers provided the addtional information from Dr. Loftus and Hylton.

"In January 2017, Williams's lawyers filed a post-conviction motion in [Brooklyn] seeking to vacate his conviction. The [DA's] Office opposed the motion."

"On June 15, 2018, the Brooklyn [DA's] Office filed a letter with [Brooklyn] Justice Sharen Hudson saying it would no longer oppose the motion to vacate Williams's conviction.

"On July 13, 2018, Justice Hudson granted the motion and dismissed the indictment against Williams, who was released immediately after serving nearly 25 years in prison...Williams later filed a claim for compensation with the New York State Court of Claims as well as a federal civil rights lawsuit.

"The compensation claim was dismissed in 2022, but in April 2022, the City of New York agreed to pay Williams $10.5 million to settle the lawsuit. Williams subsequently filed an appeal of the dismissal of the compensation claim in the...Second...Department."

[All emphases added unless othewise noted.]

Gathers, Vanessa; manslaughter; NRE: false confession, police officer misconduct, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, misconduct in interrogation of exoneree

Suggestibility issues

"Brooklyn DA Supports Upset of Woman's 1998 Conviction," Joel Stashenko, New York Law Journal, 2/24/16

"Brooklyn prosecutors moved to vacate the manslaughter conviction of a woman that was returned by a jury in 1998 largely on the strength of a confession given to the former...detective Louis Scarcella."

"Brooklyn...Justice Matthew D'Emic accepted the prosecution's request to set aside Gathers' conviction for the 2002 death of Michael Shaw."

"Inaccuracies Gathers made to authorities about her role in the crime, evidence that police lied about Shaw's death, and a 'complete lack of coherent narrative' in her confession, led [the] conviction review unit to conclude that reasonable doubt existed about her guilt."

from NRE synpsis (by Maurice Possley):

"On November 18, 1991, 71-year-old Michael Shaw's two daughters found him in his apartment of the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn...He had been badly beaten. He said he had been robbed and attacked by three women the night before.

"Shaw was taken to a hospital where he became comatose. He died in April 1992. At that time, his case was elevated from robbery and assault to homicide and was assigned to [NYPD] detective Louis Scarcella.

"Soon after Shaw died, Scarcella crossed paths with 34-year-old Vanessa Gathers, a neighborhood resident, who told Scarcella that a woman in the neighborhood had admitted being involved in the assault. Scarcella interviewed the woman and she denied involvement, but implicated three others in the crime. The case went dormant.

"Five years later, after Scarcella had been transferred out of the Brooklyn homicide bureau and into the 77th Precinct to solve 'cold cases,' the first case he turned to was the Shaw murder.

"Scarcella found Gathers living in the same building where she lived in 1991 and brought her in for questioning. He said he had a witness who placed her in Shaw's apartment when he was beaten and robbed and forensic evidence linking her to the crime. He promised that she would be released if she would just admit being present at the time of the crime. Gathers took a polygraph examination and Scarcella said she failed. When Gathers finally relented and gave a video-taped confession, Scarcella didn't let her go and instead arrested her...Gathers recanted the confession almost immediately, but it was too late.

"Gathers went to trial...in February 1998. The primary evidence against her was the confession, which Scarcella read in court and testified that he obtained without coercing Gathers. In the confession, Gathers said she went to Shaw's apartment with another woman who beat Shaw, who was in a wheelchair. Gathers said she took $60 from Shaw's pocket. Gathers testified in her own defense and denied any involvement and told the jury the confession was false.

"On February 25, 1998, the jury convicted Gathers...No one else was ever charged in the case.

"In 2001, Gathers' appeal was denied. In March 2007, she was released from prison on parole, still maintaining her innocence.

"In 2015, attorneys for the Legal Aid Society and the law firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed, who had been representing Gathers since 2013, asked the [Brooklyn] Conviction Review Unit to investigate the case.

"The Conviction Review Unit discovered that Shaw was never in a wheelchair and it was highly unlikely he would have had any money for anyone to steal -- as Gathers said in the confession. There was a witness who said Gathers was involved, but she had been deemed not credible from the very beginning. There was no forensic evidence linking her to the crime. Although the polygraph examination indicated deception on Gathers' part, the Conviction Review Unit concluded that the combination of the general ubnreliability of polygraph results and the fact that the examination was five years after the crime rendered it of no evidentiary value.

"On February 23, 2016, Thompson filed a motion to vacate Gathers' convictions. The motion was granted and Thompson dismissed the charges.

"In May 2016, Gathers filed a claim for compensation in the New York Court of Claims. It was settled for $1.5 million. She separately received $2.4 million in a settlement with the City of New York."

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]