Five wrongly convicted of NY rape ‘settle for $40mn’

A man holds up a sign during a rally in support of the Central Park Five in New York in this file photo taken on January 17, 2013. New York City has agreed to pay $40mn to five men who were convicted, and later exonerated, of brutally raping a female jogger in Central Park in 1989, settling a long-fought civil rights lawsuit, according to a person familiar with the matter.

AFP/Reuters

New York

Five black and Hispanic men wrongly imprisoned for the brutal 1989 rape and attempted murder of a white investment banker in Central Park have agreed to settle a lawsuit against New York City for $40mn, the New York Times reported.

The men, all teenagers from Harlem at the time, were falsely convicted of nearly killing 28-year-old Trisha Meili while “wilding” through the park on a warm night in April of that year.

If approved by the city comptroller and a judge, each man will be awarded about $1mn for each year spent in prison, the Times reported without identifying its source.

New York City officials told AFP they were not able to comment because of ongoing litigation.

The case was a crucible for tensions and fears in New York at a time when race relations were fraught, a crack cocaine epidemic ravaged poor communities, violent crime was rampant and the gulf between rich and poor gaped wide.

Meili went for a night run in northern Central Park, was ambushed on a dark path and dragged into a ravine where she was beaten, sexually assaulted and left for dead.

She gradually recovered but had no memory of the attack, leaving police and prosecutors under intense pressure from media outlets and terrified New Yorkers to find the assailants.

Within hours, investigators picked up the five teenagers in a sweep of the area and interrogated them at length, often without the presence of an attorney or a parent at first.

The five – Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam – were between 14 and 16 years of age at the time of the rape and confessed after lengthy police interrogations.

Each soon recanted, insisting they had admitted to the crime under the duress of exhaustion and coercion from police officers.

Despite dramatic holes in the case against them and no DNA match from the crime scene, the accused who became known as the Central Park five (CP5) all were convicted.

The teenagers spent between six and 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he had attacked Meili alone.

Murderer and serial rapist Matias Reyes confessed to the crime, and DNA tied him to the rape.

The five sued the city in 2003 for wrongful conviction and violation of their civil rights, seeking $250mn in damages.

The deal comes six months after Mayor Bill de Blasio, who called for a settlement during his campaign, took office.

His predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, had long resisted settling the case, with city lawyers repeatedly saying that the convictions withstood legal scrutiny regardless of whether they were later vacated.

In January, the city asked for the litigation to be put on hold to explore a resolution.

Their case was turned into a film, The Central Park Five that premiered at Cannes in 2012.