Ray of light for cons jailed in slays after work by retired NYPD Detective Louis Scarcella comes under cloud
Brooklyn DA to reopen about 50 murder cases after conviction of David Ranta is tossed amid charges of coercing suspects and witnesses
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BY SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM , VERA CHINESE AND BARRY PADDOCK / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
SUNDAY, MAY 12, 2013, 11:03 PM
ENID ALVAREZ/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
David Ranta, who served over 20 years in jail in the slaying of a Brooklyn Rabbi, was freed this year after his conviction was thrown out because of shoddy police work by Scarcella.
Now that every murder conviction linked to a retired NYPD detective will be reexamined, men he put behind bars are hoping their names will at last be cleared.
About 50 cases that Detective Louis Scarcella worked will be reopened by the Brooklyn district attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit in the wake of a judge’s decision to toss David Ranta’s conviction two months ago.
Ranta served more than two decades in prison in the killing of a Brooklyn rabbi before Scarcella’s shoddy police work came to light. One witness, only 13 at the time of the investigation, claimed Scarcella coached him to pick Ranta out of a lineup.
Ranta, 58, was not the first man freed because of questions about the integrity of Scarcella’s work.
“It’s despicable, in this time and age, for people who are innocent to still be sitting in jail,” said Derrick Hamilton, who was paroled in 2011 after the Daily News reported Scarcella’s only witness had recanted her claim that Hamilton killed her boyfriend.
Hamilton, 47, is still fighting to get a judge to officially clear his name.
“Now that it’s revealed that Scarcella is who he is and his real character is coming out, I'm hopeful,” Hamilton said.
When Scarcella arrested him, the detective made a shocking admission, according to Hamilton.
“He told me, ‘I know you didn’t commit this murder, but I don’t care,’ ” he said.
Hamilton, who had previously done six years in prison on a manslaughter rap, says Scarcella told him he was being pinned for the new case because he didn’t do enough time for the old one.
Scarcella, 61, decline to comment as he entered his Staten Island home Sunday.
“I’m sorry I can’t speak to you,” he said. “Enjoy Mother’s Day.”
A spokesman confirmed Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes was reviewing about 50 cases tied to Scarcella, but declined to comment further.
In a 1985 murder Scarcella investigated, Alvena Jennette, 49, was convicted with his brother Darryl Austin. Jennette was released in 2007, but his brother died in prison.
The only witness to their crime was drug addict Teresa Gomez.
Gomez claimed in court to have also seen two separate murders by Jennette’s stepbrother, Robert Hill, who was acquitted of the first and convicted of the second murder. He remains in prison.
Gomez testified in court in other murder cases Scarcella investigated, The New York Times reported, and may have been rewarded for her cooperation.
“How is it possible a detective could use a witness in that many murder trials without any red flags being raised?” Jennette asked.
Because he is out of prison, Jennette’s case will likely be a lower priority for review.
“I still have a murder conviction,” said Jennette, a construction worker. “Do you know how hard it is to find a job?”
Lawyer Ron Kuby is representing another man Scarcella helped put away, Shakaba Shakur, 48, who is 26 years into a 40-years-to-life murder sentence.
Kuby says Shakur’s confession, which his client denies ever making, parallels Ranta’s questionable confession.
Scarcella somehow managed to get admissions — which were not witnessed, recorded or written.
“You’d think after two or three or five of these magical confessions, some judge somewhere would say, ‘Hmm . . . ’ ” Kuby said.
Kuby acknowledges not all of the people Scarcella arrested can be innocent.
“Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then,” he said.
With Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Erin Durkin
Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/dozens-murder-cases-new-article-1.1342215#ixzz2TDQyHZrr
