BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) — Another Brooklyn murder conviction may be overturned after the involvement of retired NYPD Detective Louis Scarcella. After his retirement, more than a dozen murder convictions tied to Scarcella have been overturned.
Scarcella was called onto the witness stand Monday morning and was grilled on his role in the conviction of Hector Lopez.
“There’s nothing worse than feeling like you have the world against you,” Lopez told PIX11 News.
Lopez was found guilty of setting a 1994 fire in Williamsburg that killed two people. He spent 25 years in prison.
During a hearing to review whether Lopez’s conviction should be overturned, his attorney, Cary London, told a judge, “Your honor, Hector Lopez is innocent.”
When Lopez was arrested in 1994, he was brought into a police precinct and Scarcella was called in. Scarcella testified, “I was asked by the lieutenant to speak to him, and I entered the room. My partner came right after and we sat down and we started to talk.”
Scarcella said he and his partner questioned Lopez for seven hours, eventually securing a confession. Lopez said he never confessed and the one witness in the case later changed her story. Scarcella said he stands by his work in the investigation.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office believes Lopez’s conviction should stand, telling PIX11 News in a statement:
“This defendant conspired to assassinate witnesses, the case detective and a prosecutor while awaiting trial for killing a man and a woman.”
A spokesperson for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office went on to say, “The evidence in his murder trial did not consist of merely a confession, but included other statements he had made, items, including gasoline, that were found in his car, and witness testimony. We will continue to defend this just conviction in court.”
