Central Park 5 Sue Trump For Defamation After He Again Blamed Them For Crime During Presidential Debate

Topline

The five men who were wrongly accused and convicted of a brutal New York City assault in 1989, now known as the “Central Park 5,” on Monday sued former President Donald Trump for defamation after he once again asserted they were responsible for the crime and falsely claimed a victim had died during a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris last month.

Key Facts

Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam filed the claim against Trump in federal court in Pennsylvania Monday, claiming the former president defamed them, painted them in an offensive false light and intentionally inflicted emotional distress by making his claims on the national debate stage.

In response to a comment from Vice President Kamala Harris about Trump's lengthy history with the Central Park 5, Trump claimed during the debate the group had pleaded guilty to the assault before changing their plea to not guilty, and said they "killed a person ultimately."

Neither claim is true—the men never pled guilty to any crime associated with the attack and the victim, Trisha Meili, now 64, is still alive.

The five men maintained their innocence throughout their trial, conviction and years spent in prison before they were exonerated in 2002 following the confession of convicted rapist and murderer Matias Reyes.

Trump has, in claims dating back to 1989, repeatedly asserted the men are guilty of the crime and said during the 2016 presidential election, "the fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous."

The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.

Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign communications director, called the complaint “another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists, in an attempt to distract the American people from Kamala Harris’s dangerously liberal agenda and failing campaign” in a statement to Forbes.

Key Background

On April 19, 1989, several people were attacked in Manhattan’s Central Park by what 911 callers said was a group of dozens of Black and Hispanic teenagers terrorizing the park. The attacks, most notably the assault and rape of then 28-year-old jogger Meili, came amid heightened racial and socioeconomic tensions in New York City as the divide between poor communities and the rich continued to widen. The five men who sued Trump Monday, who were between the ages of 14 and 16 at the time and all Black or Latino, were brought in for questioning following the attacks. All five denied having anything to do with the assaults but, after hours of interrogation, four agreed to provide written and videotaped statements falsely admitting to the crime according to Monday’s lawsuit. The statements, made under duress, were all recanted shortly after. On May 4, weeks after the attacks, the boys were indicted and charged with attempted murder, rape, sodomy, assault, robbery, sexual abuse and riot. They pleaded not guilty on all counts but were convicted in the attacks. There was no forensic evidence linking them to the crimes, according to the complaint. All five served sentences ranging from seven to 13 years before they were exonerated. The Central Park 5, later called the “Exonerated 5,” sued the city for false arrest, malicious prosecution and racially motivated conspiracy, among other claims, in 2003. The lawsuit settled for $41 million in 2014.

Tangent

Trump has a long history with the Central Park 5. On May 1, 1989—11 days after the attacks but before the boys were indicted and charged—Trump published a full-page advertisement in four New York City newspapers calling for the city to "[s]end a message loud and clear to those who would murder our citizens and terrorize New York—BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY AND BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” The ad did not specifically identify the suspects, but did allude to the assaults in Central Park (it was a comment from Harris about the advertisements that prompted Trump's response at September's debate). Trump never apologized for the ad, and has continued to make comments about the case. In 2013, he called a documentary on the Central Park 5 case a "one-sided piece of garbage" and, that same year, called the men “muggers.” He called the 2014 settlement "a disgrace" in an op-ed for the New York Daily New. During the 2016 presidential race, Trump said "They admitted they were guilty." In 2019, he said "You have people on both sides of that. They admitted their guilt."

Further Reading