Toss of old slay rap OKd
Appeals court: Detectives’ evidence can’t be trusted
Two now-retired Brooklyn NYPD detectives built up such a pattern of misconduct, evidence they provided can’t be trusted to justify a man’s conviction in a 1995 murder case, appeals court judges ruled.
Eliseo DeLeon, 43, spent more than half of his life in prison for the Crown Heights robbery-gonewrong killing of Fausto Cordero in a case investigated by NYPD detectives Louis Scarcella and Stephen Chmil, who have come under scrutiny over their tactics in getting confessions.
More than a dozen men have had their convictions overturned in Scarcella cases since 2013.
That record was enough to overturn DeLeon’s conviction, a state Appellate Division panel ruled Wednesday.
“Based on Scarcella’s and Chmil’s significant involvement in the case, newly discovered evidence of their misconduct would have furnished the jury with a different context in which
to view all of the evidence in this case, including the defendant’s purported inculpatory statement made to these detectives which the defendant has denied making,” the judges wrote.
Scarcella — a hard-charging, cigar-chomping detective known during his career as the guy who closed tough murder cases — has denied ever delivering a phony
confession. But he has been called into Brooklyn courts numerous times since 2013 to testify as to his tactics and has watched as convictions he and his partner secured in the 1990s were tossed by judges.
Cordero was heading to his car on Franklin Ave. on a summer night when a robber confronted him and his wife.
Cordero pushed his wife out of the way, and the robber shot him once in the chest.
DeLeon was arrested a few days later on a tip, with eyewitnesses — including Cordero’s wife, Blanca — identifying him as the shooter.
Detectives Scarcella and Chmil claimed they witnessed DeLeon’s confession.
But DeLeon denies confessing and claims the cops concocted it — a claim that has freed other Brooklyn men who say the detectives coerced or made up their admissions of guilt.
The Appellate Division ruling upheld a lower court ruling by
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Dena Douglas that DeLeon’s murder conviction should be overturned and that he should be released, but Brooklyn prosecutors appealed the decision in 2020, saying they still believed DeLeon committed the crime.
Scarcella and Chmil did not testify at the original trial.
“Thankfully the wheels of justice are still spinning in the right direction,” said DeLeon’s lawyer, Cary London. “Judge Douglas had it right the first time. My client is thrilled the appellate court agreed.”
While the decision is DeLeon’s second big win in the case, he is not totally out of his legal bind. He remains under indictment for the murder and prosecutors could retry him or appeal to New York State’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.
“We are reviewing the court’s decision,” said Oren Yaniv, a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Scarcella and his lawyer declined to comment on the record when reached by the Daily News.