[Note: Integrity matters — and matters greatly in policing. We all know that the policing function is effective and much safer when most community members view their police officers as honest, trustworthy, respectful, and competent. When that is not the case, everyone pays. I have taken the liberty of posting this recent news article. The detective in question has not been charged with a crime. However, the city he once served is paying greatly for what the city lawyers believe are gross behaviors and are attempting to balance the scales of justice for 14 wrongly-convicted defendants to the tune of over 100 million dollars. No one police officer in NYC has cost the taxpayers so much.]
An Ex-Detective’s Overturned Murder Cases Have Cost New York $110 Million
Louis N. Scarcella, a former N.Y.P.D. detective, was accused of framing dozens of people for murder. The city and state have paid a steep price to settle claims over the past decade.
The New York Times, Nov. 20, 2023
[Frances Robles won a George Polk award for justice reporting for her investigation into Detective Louis N. Scarcella.]
“A single New York City police detective accused of trying to close murder cases by concocting false witness testimony and coercing confessions has cost taxpayers $110 million in settlements to more than a dozen people whose convictions were overturned after some had spent decades in prison.
“People investigated by the former detective, Louis N. Scarcella, have already received a total of $73.1 million in settlements from New York City and another $36.9 million from the state, according to the city and state comptroller offices. The payouts are expected to rise by tens of millions more, because the men cleared last year of burning a subway token clerk alive in 1995 have filed claims against the state.
“The $110 million went to 14 different defendants, including a woman who died a few years after her release, a man who was just 14 when he was arrested on murder charges and a man whose settlement went to his mother because he died in prison at age 37. One man, let out of prison after 23 years, had a severe heart attack just two days later.
“Mr. Scarcella has not been charged with any crimes. But no other New York Police Department officer has ever come close to costing taxpayers as much, lawyers involved in the cases say. Experts in wrongful convictions say the sum is “staggering,” and puts Mr. Scarcella in the company of just a handful of other police officers in Chicago and Philadelphia accused of rigging dozens of cases, costing millions.
“In New York, a city with 36,000 police officers, records show that Mr. Scarcella’s cases represent about 15 percent of the nearly $500 million the city spent on reversed convictions between 2014 and 2022. The city often settles out of court to avoid the potential of a bigger payout at trial…”
Read the full article HERE.
Improving Police: A Necessary Conversation 