At oral arguments on Thursday for a lawsuit filed against New York City by a man who spent 14 years in prison for a murder he says he didn’t commit, judges questioned claims that the case highlights a larger pattern of prosecutorial misconduct within the Queens District Attorney’s Office.

The appeal by Kareem Bellamy, who was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1994 stabbing death of James Abbott in the Rockaway section of Queens, centers around the Queens DA’s practice in which certain information is not disclosed to trial prosecutors, which defense attorneys say is a sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” that protects trial prosecutors from potential Brady violations. The practice is said to construct a “wall” between trial lawyers and others who may have access to material that must be handed over under law to the defense.