Retired Brooklyn homicide detective Louis Scarcella has been under the microscope for most of the summer due to an exhaustive probe of his cases. The probe was triggered by allegations of highly questionable practices in his investigations--and evidence he may have caused an innocent man to spend 22 years in jail for a murder he didn't commit. But a front-page story in today's New York Times suggests that Scarcella may not be the only current or former NYPD detective in hot water. Sharron Ivory, who witnessed the 1995 murder of his toddler cousin now says the police coached him into lying about whether he could identify the person who pulled the trigger.
Mr. Ivory was interviewed in recent weeks, first by a pair of detectives and then by an assistant district attorney, he said in a telephone interview. He told them he was lying nearly 20 years ago when he said he could identify the man who shot his cousin, a little girl who was struck by a stray bullet in a case that caused considerable public outrage.
Back in 1995, Ivory's cousin, four-year-old Shamone Johnson was skating in Prospect Plaza when she rolled into the middle of a gang shootout. One of the bullets hit her, killing her instantly. At the time, Ivory identified Sundhe Moses as the killer. But now Ivory says that identification was coached.
“I didn’t recognize anyone,” Mr. Ivory told The New York Times in a telephone interview from Eastern Correctional Facility, a prison in Ulster County where he is serving time in an unrelated homicide. “The cops would say the number out loud and say, ‘Take a good look at it,’ so I went with it. I thought they knew what they were doing. And I figured if it wasn’t him, he could beat it at trial.”
Mr. Ivory said the prosecutor who visited him in prison several weeks ago casually mentioned that he could face perjury charges if he changed the story he had testified to be true.
While Scarcella allegedly browbeat Moses into confessing, he wasn't the detective who gave Ivory the pictures. Ivory now feels terrible about playing a role in sending Moses to prison on a term of 16 years to life.
Given the nature of this investigation, it was pretty much a given that more misconduct would turn up. Regardless, heads need to roll--and some current or former cops may need to go to jail.