Named in 5 known lawsuits, $50,400,000 total settlements.
Malik, Thomas vs The City of Ny, et al.
Case # 23CV09070,
U.S. District Court - Eastern District NY, January 11, 2024, ended July 11, 2024
$16,250,000 Settlement
Complaint
Description: On or about December 14, 1995, Thomas Malik (then age 18) was arrested and interrogated by Officer Louis Scarcella (ret.) and Officer Stephen Chmil (ret.) for over four hours about the murder of Harry Kaufman, a subway toll collector in Brooklyn. During the interrogation, Malik was cursed at, physically abused, shown a copy of another falsified confession by a man who would become his co-defendant, and threatened, until he signed a written confession that had been prepared by Officer Scarcella. Malik was charged with the robbery and murder. He was tried alongside 17-year-old Vincent Ellerbe, who was also charged with the crimes after a similar interrogation that resulted in Ellerbe signing a falsified confes...
Irons, James vs Scarcella, Louis Et, Al
Case # 23CV07633,
U.S. District Court - Eastern District NY, October 13, 2023, ended July 11, 2024
$16,250,000 Settlement
Complaint
Description: In December 1995, NYPD arrested Plaintiff was arrested for murder. Plaintiff, who has cognitive defects, was questioned by Defendant NYPD Officers Paul, Scarcella, and Chmil, was not informed of his Miranda rights until an hour into the interrogation, was fed key details by Defendants, and was struck by Defendants, until Plaintiff signed a false confession. Defendants then coached Plaintiff to give a taped confession by feeding him further details and answer yes and no questions, resulting in two confessions that were contradictory. Defendant Scarcella, Chmil, and Paul coerced Plaintiff to falsely confess to the murder. Defendants Scarcella, Chmil and Paul also failed to investigate other suspects and violated ...
Williams, Shawn vs Scarcella, Louis, et al.
Case # 20CV02348,
U.S. District Court - Eastern District NY, June 12, 2020, ended May 12, 2022
$10,500,000 Settlement
Complaint
Description: On July 13, 2018, Plaintiff’s 1994 conviction for murder was vacated, after he served 24 years in prison. The conviction was based on a single eye witness who later recanted her testimony and asserts that she testified falsely due to coercion by former NYPD detectives Louis Scarcella, Stephen Chmil, and Lewis Bond. NYPD officers came to the witness’s home, arrested and imprisoned her, and transported her from Georgia to New York to testify. The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Ogistem knew of this activity.
Plaintiff filed a motion to vacate his conviction based on grounds of actual innocence, newly discovered evidence, and violation of First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, including Brady violations....
Bunn, John vs City of New York, et al.
Case # 19CV04667,
U.S. District Court - Eastern District NY, September 5, 2019, ended December 16, 2020
$5,900,000 Settlement
Complaint
Description: On August 13, 1991, two NY corrections officers were shot at by two perpetrators and one died from his injuries. Detectives Louis Scarcella, Stephen Chmil, and John Barba wrongly identified 14-year old Defendant Bunn and his Co-Defendant as the perpetrators, despite there being no placement of them at the scene, no evidence of their involvement, and no connection between their appearance and the witness descriptions. The detectives, in an effort to close the case, created a pretextual reason for arrest, made false stories about the defendants, influenced the victim to identify the defendants out of a lineup, and used aggressive interrogation techniques against Defendant.
Despite these issues and complete relia...
Ranta, Patricia, et al. vs City of New York, et al.
Case # 14CV03794,
U.S. District Court - Eastern District NY, June 25, 2014, ended August 23, 2024
$1,500,000 Settlement
Complaint
Description: On February 8, 1990, an attempted robbery gone wrong resulted in the murder of 56-year old Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger, and the family of Plaintiff David Ranta brought suit over the alleged manufacturing of evidence in pinning the murder on Ranta in an abuse of process and malicious prosecution scenario. Detectives Louis Scarcely and Stephen Chmil are the two detectives alleged to have manufactured the evidence through actions such as coaching witnesses.