Late Sunday, New York City comptroller Scott Stringer announced that the city was paying a total of $17 million to two men and the family of a third who were wrongly convicted of murder in the 1980s. All three men were arrested by the same man, retired New York Police Department homicide detective Louis Scarcella. Sunday’s announcement is the latest development in a two-year investigation of Scarcella’s body of work amid charges that Scarcella withheld evidence, coached witnesses and fabricated confessions.
Robert Hill, Alvena Jennette, and Darryl Austin spent a combined 60 years in prison before they were formally exonerated in May. Prosecutors in Brooklyn concluded they couldn’t stand by the convictions after a review found their cases were shot through with numerous irregularities. The convictions were based almost entirely on the testimony of Teresa Gomez, a crack-addicted woman who was used as a witness in Scarcella’s cases before she died several years ago in a hit-and-run accident. Hill was convicted in 1988 for killing Donald Manbordes in 1985 after Gomez claimed to have seen Hill and three friends stuff the victim into a yellow cab. However, the cab was actually blue, and had been hailed by two unarmed people. Additionally, the three friends were never called to testify, even though they corroborated Hill’s claim to have found Manbordes’ body in a basement. Hill was the only one still in prison at the time, and received $7.15 million–a large chunk of which will go toward dealing with his multiple sclerosis.
Jennette and Austin were convicted in 1987 for murdering Ronnie Durant in 1985. When Scarcella took over the case, he never turned over the previous detective’s notebook to the defense. That notebook contained an interview with a witness who gave the name and address of another person whom that witness said was the real perp. Prosecutors also revealed that Gomez’ testimony was so bizarre that Jennette and Austin’s lawyer wanted her tested for drugs–meaning that Jennette and Austin may have been convicted on the word of someone who may have been stoned on the stand. Jennette was paroled in 2007 and will receive $6 million. That amount will be more than enough for him to make a living; according to the attorney for all three men, Pierre Sussman, Jennette has been “virtually unemployable,” even after his name was cleared. Austin died in prison in 2000, and his estate will receive $3.85 million.
These payments are the third, fourth, and fifth such settlements made by Stringer since he took office last year. All but one of them are related to cases handled by Scarcella–including the case that first put him under the hot lights. David Ranta was convicted in 1991 for the 1990 murder of a well-respected rabbi in the Williamsburg neighborhood. However, the case fell apart when a witness who had identified Ranta in a police lineup claimed that Scarcella had told him to pick Ranta out of the lineup. After prosecutors found numerous other irregularities, Ranta was formally cleared in 2013. A civil rights lawsuit–one that Ranta would have almost certainly won–was staved off when Stringer announced the city would pay Ranta $6.4 million.
Normally, such settlements are handled by the city’s Law Department. However, Stringer does have the power under New York City’s charter to arrange settlements on his own authority, and said he did so as part of the healing process from a “a difficult time in our city’s history.” What he didn’t say–or rather, what he didn’t need to say–was that the city really had no choice. Based on what has been revealed about Scarcella’s outrageous misconduct, these settlements would have been a drop in the bucket compared to how much the city would have had to pay when–not if–the city lost any civil rights lawsuits filed on these men’s behalf.
You’re no doubt wondering how soon Scarcella himself will be before a judge. Well, the review is still very much underway; Stringer said that there is the potential for several more settlements in the next couple of years. Additionally, given the sheer egregiousness of the situation, it’s a near-certainty that the federal government will get involved–that is, if it isn’t already involved. Let’s hope that at some point, Scarcella will have to answer–under oath–for abusing his badge in this way. That, more than money, will be real justice.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
