He’s become an expert in shoddy police work.
A Brooklyn federal judge ruled Tuesday that ​​controversial ​ex-​NYPD Det​.​ Louis Scarcella​ — whose body of investigative work from the 1990s has been under review after the exoneration of four men who’d been put away for decades due to his questionable police tactics — ​​can be deposed in a ​false incarceration ​case he didn’t even work on.
Attorneys for Jabbar Collins ​— a Brooklyn man who spent 16 years in prison ​for the murder of a rabbi before being exonerated ​— want to grill Scarcella because he was part of the same homicide squad that collared their client ​in the ​’​90s.
Scarcella’s ​once-​sterling arrest record has come under fire after four convictions were recently overturned​ due to questionable police ​practices, including intimidation of witnesses and using the same drug-addled hooker to make ​​multiple ​cases.
Joel Rudin, an attorney for Collins, said Scarcella could help to establish “whether the DA’s office closed their eyes to this conduct.”
City attorneys sought to quash the request and called it a flagrant attempt to grab media attention.
“The goal here is to generate some news coverage,” said city lawyer Arthur Larkin, who stressed Scarcella’s distance from the Collins case.
Scarcella’s attorney, Alan Abramson, also sought to prevent the deposition and said that his client has been scapegoated by the media as a “poster boy” for crooked cops.
Magistrate Judge Robert Levy sided with Rudin but warned against a fishing expedition ​with Scarcella during his deposition.
“I do think if there were practices tolerated by the Brooklyn DA’s office and the NYPD which jeopardized a defendant’s right to a fair trial i do think its appropriate,” Levy said of his decision to allow the deposition.
Collins is suing the city in Brooklyn federal court for $150 million. His case was tossed after allegations of severe prosecutorial misconduct came to light.