Panel to Review Up to 50 Trial Convictions Involving a Discredited NYPD Detective

A panel of former prosecutors, professors and retired judges will review dozens of trial convictions associated with a retired New York City police detective whose work may have sent innocent men to prison.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes made the announcement Monday.

The group will be led by former administrative judge and Pace Law School professor Robert Keating. Others on the panel include Joseph Bellacosa, a retired member of the New York State Court of Appeals.

They’ll review about 50 cases worked by detective Louis Scarcella. Prosecutors began casting a critical eye at Scarcella’s work after a judge threw out the conviction of a man accused of killing a Brooklyn rabbi.

A spokesman for Hynes told The New York Times that critics may question some of the panelists’ ties to him. But he called them “esteemed individuals with the highest integrity.”