Charles “Joe” Hynes, whose legacy as Brooklyn’s longest-serving district attorney has been marred in recent years by controversies that include the release of dozens of wrongfully convicted defendants that his office helped to imprison, has died. He was 83.

Hynes, Brooklyn born and bred, obtained his J.D. from the St. John’s University School of Law in 1961 and took a job with the Legal Aid Society. In 1969, he joined the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office; within a few years rose up the ranks to chief of the office’s rackets bureau and, later, first assistant district attorney.