Updated October 21, 2024 at 14:40 PM ET
Members of the Central Park Five (also called the Exonerated Five) are suing former President Donald Trump for defamation over comments he made during last month's presidential debate, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on Monday.
The five, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown (formerly Antron McCray), and Korey Wise, were wrongfully convicted in 1989 of a brutal assault on a New York jogger in Central Park. They were just teens then and ultimately spent years in prison for crimes they did not commit before being exonerated by DNA and the confession of a convicted rapist and murderer.
But during the September debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Trump said that at the time the teenagers “admitted – they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately.” The victim in the case is still alive and deals with lingering health effects from her attack. The five never pled guilty for the crimes they were charged with.
The lawsuit alleges that Trump defamed the men, "cast them in a harmful false light and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on them," attorney Shanin Specter said in a statement.
"The Plaintiffs seek to correct the record and clear their names once again,” Specter said. The five men are looking for a trial by jury and for Trump to pay an undetermined amount in compensatory damages, punitive damages and other costs, the lawsuit says.
An attorney for Trump is not yet listed on the case.
Prior to the comments Trump made during the debate last month in Philadelphia, there have been a number of times Trump has falsely claimed that the men were responsible for the attack, according to the lawsuit. Following the assault of the jogger in 1989, Trump famously took out full-page ads in the city's major newspapers calling for the return of the death penalty for those responsible — further inciting racial tensions in the city.
Read on to learn more about the case that is making headlines, again.
What happened in April 1989?
In 1989, Trisha Meili was a 28-year-old investment banker out for a jog in Central Park when she was brutally beaten and raped. Following the violent attack, Meili fell into a coma for almost two weeks and retained no memory of the attack.
New York City at the time was dealing with high violent crime rates and the media covered the case extensively. On the same night Meili was attacked, witnesses told media and police that groups of teenage boys attacked passersby and other joggers, robbing and beating them.
Police brought in a group of Black and Hispanic teen boys — Brown (then McCray), Richardson, Santana, Wise and Salaam — and subjected them to intense questioning.
"The boys were christened the 'Wolf Pack,' and quickly became symbols of the criminal menace that white New Yorkers felt had captured their city," Poynter said of the media at the time.
Trump jumped on the media circus of the day and purchased his full-page ad in The New York Times and other major city newspapers.
What happened after their arrest?
Brown (then McCray), Richardson, Santana, Wise and Salaam broke down after hours of questioning, confessing on videotape — statements the boys ultimately recanted, saying they were coerced.
“When we were arrested, the police deprived us of food, drink or sleep for more than 24 hours,” Salaam wrote in the Washington Post in 2016. “Under duress, we falsely confessed."
The five pleaded not guilty but were imprisoned and served several years in prison.
Salaam wrote in that 2016 article, "Though we were innocent, we spent our formative years in prison, branded as rapists.”
This case is often used by juvenile justice experts as an example of the vulnerability of children and teens who come into contact with the criminal justice system. Their brains are not fully developed and research shows that juveniles are more likely than adults to confess to a crime they did not commit.
The case has also repeatedly been used as evidence of a criminal justice system prejudiced against individuals of color.
It wasn't until 2002 that the five men were exonerated after convicted rapist and murderer Matias Reyes confessed to the crime. Reyes' DNA matched the sample found on Meili.
After their convictions were vacated, the five men received a multi-million dollar settlement from New York City.
Again and again, Trump has stood by the false belief that the men are guilty
Trump has never apologized for taking out the full-page ad (which didn't name the five men explicitly) and decades later continues to repeat claims that they were responsible for the attack. Trump's comments during the September debate were "part of a continuing pattern of extreme and outrageous conduct toward Plaintiffs stretching back decades," the lawsuit filed Monday alleged.
The lawsuit also points to a number of times in recent years, including during media interviews, editorials and in social media posts, in which Trump continued to falsely claim the Exonerated Five were guilty.
Salaam wrote in his article that when Trump was asked about the case during the 2016 presidential race, he said, “They admitted they were guilty." And in a statement to CNN at the time Trump also said, “The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous."
Salaam said Trump's claims do damage, and cause fear and stress.
"In some ways, I feel like I’m on trial all over again. I know what it is to be a young black man without a voice — like Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown, who were killed and then crucified in the press. Even though the Central Park Five were found innocent by a court of law, we are still guilty in the eyes of many," Salaam wrote. "That brings a certain kind of stress."
And during the debate last month, Trump doubled down.
Salaam, who along with three other members of the Exonerated Five spoke at the Democratic National Convention and is now a New York City council member, was in the post-debate spin room, where he came face-to-face with Trump. The former president didn't appear to know who Salaam was when asked by reporters whether he would apologize.
The Independent reported on the incident, saying Trump, "grinned and pointed at [Salaam], quipping: 'That’s good, you’re on my side!'"
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