Nor does he have anything bad to say about Ranta or express concern about lawsuits.
Scarcella, 61, defends his record and bristles when asked what went wrong with Ranta.
Since Ranta's release, police say Scarcella has received death threats, but he won't talk about them.
Ranta's second-degree murder conviction stemmed from the 1990 killing of a rabbi during a diamond heist.
After learning earlier this week of Ranta's pending release, the retired Scarcella defended his work.
If the judge agrees, Ranta, 58, could walk out of the courtroom as a free man.
In another twist, Ranta suffered a heart attack the day after he was released and was hospitalized.
That meant David Ranta, who eventually was convicted of murder and has languished behind bars ever since.
And Ranta denied he knowingly signed police file folders with statements saying he'd helped plan the robbery.
"We come from the same neighborhood, " Scarcella recalls telling David Ranta, also from Brooklyn, during questioning in 1990.
After a judge's apology, Ranta was released earlier this month amid a crush of crying relatives and television cameras.
Ranta, 58, has proclaimed his innocence, sparking speculation that he could try to sue authorities for a wrongful conviction.
After the arrest of Ranta, Hasidic Jews surrounded the car that carried him to jail and chanted, "Death penalty!"
Scarcella says his coaxing got Ranta to confess he was in on a botched robbery that led to the killing.
He said the accumulated trauma of being wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for 23 years, had an immense effect on Ranta's health.
In paperwork filed in advance of Ranta's appearance in state court in Brooklyn, prosecutors didn't say they think Ranta is innocent.
In an initial lineup, only one witness recognized Ranta, and that was after a lengthy conversation with a Yiddish interpreter, they noted.
CNN: Freed NY convict's first goal: 'Get the hell out of here'
The confession was a key to Ranta's conviction at a 1991 trial.
After an investigation, prosecutors recommended that Ranta's conviction be tossed out.
"That's a good question, " Assistant District Attorney John O'Mara, who heads the district attorney's Conviction Integrity Unit, said after a judge released Ranta.
"Now you people do what you got to do, because I feel this is all a total frame setup, " Ranta said at his sentencing.
Though no physical evidence linked him to the crime, a jury found Ranta guilty in May 1991 based on witness testimony and circumstantial evidence.
Scarcella's hair is still dark but thinner than in a black-and-white photo showing him leading away a handcuffed Ranta following the arrest in the rabbi case.
Two men being held in other cases gave them the name of an unemployed drug addict named David Ranta, who was eventually tracked down by Scarcella.
Prosecutors made clear that there was no evidence that police deliberately tried to frame an innocent man and haven't ruled out Ranta's involvement in the case.
"The police had an alleged confession from him, but there was no physical evidence, " Michael Baum, the lawyer who represented Ranta at his trial, told CNN.
CNN: Freed NY convict's first goal: 'Get the hell out of here'
Louis Scarcella, one of the detectives who investigated the case, told CNN that Ranta admitted his involvement in the heist attempt and that he stands by the arrest.
CNN: Freed NY convict's first goal: 'Get the hell out of here'
Ranta himself was unequivocal on the question of his innocence.
They believe there's still credible evidence Ranta participated, he said.
Under questioning, Ranta gave a signed statement admitting that he had helped plan the botched heist and was at the scene shortly before it occurred, according to court documents.
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