Mourn Joe Hynes, Prosecutor Whose Career Lost Luster Over 'Frames'

Charles J. Hynes, who distinguished himself by rooting out nursing-home abuses and gained national fame in successfully prosecuting young white men who chased a black man to his death in Howard Beach, Queens but had his 24-year tenure as Brooklyn District Attorney come to a crashing end when a string of wrongful convictions emerged, died Jan. 29 while on vacation in Deerfield Beach, Fla. He was 83.

Mr. Hynes, who also served as Fire Commissioner under Mayor Ed Koch in the early 1980s, became a go-to guy for two Democratic Governors, Hugh L. Carey and Mario M. Cuomo, serving both as a special prosecutor sandwiched around his tenure at the FDNY. His winning manslaughter convictions against three of the main defendants in the Howard Beach case inspired a TV movie starring Daniel J. Travanti, who had just finished an extended run as the model of a tough-but-caring big-city Police Captain on “Hill Street Blues,” and helped propel him to election as Brooklyn District Attorney in 1989.