(Scypre.com) – The five men who became known as the Central Park Five have filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump, alleging that he falsely claimed they had pleaded guilty to a notorious rape case during a recent presidential debate. The men, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown, and Korey Wise, were convicted of a brutal assault in New York’s Central Park in 1989, but had their convictions overturned in 2002 after DNA evidence confirmed another individual was responsible.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in a federal court in eastern Pennsylvania, argues that Trump acted with “reckless disregard” for the truth when he falsely asserted during a September 10 debate that the men had “pleaded guilty” to the crime. The five men were teenagers at the time of the attack and had consistently maintained their innocence. During the debate, Trump claimed that the Central Park Five had “killed a person” and that they had admitted their guilt, statements the lawsuit described as “extreme and outrageous” with the intent to inflict “severe emotional distress.”
Trump made the comments during a segment on race relations after Kamala Harris mentioned that Trump had taken out a full-page ad in major newspapers in 1989, calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty at the height of public outcry over the case. Trump’s advertisement read: “Bring back the death penalty and bring back our police!” The lawsuit also points out that Trump had inaccurately named Michael Bloomberg as the mayor of New York at the time, instead of Ed Koch.
In fact, all five men had pleaded not guilty and were ultimately exonerated. The victim of the attack, 28-year-old investment banker Trisha Meili, survived the assault but was severely injured. The five men were convicted and imprisoned, only to be released years later when a serial rapist and murderer named Matias Reyes confessed to the crime, with his confession corroborated by DNA evidence. In 2014, the city of New York awarded the five men a $41 million settlement.
The lawsuit against Trump noted that the former president has previously refused to acknowledge their exoneration. In 2014, Trump called the damages awarded to the men “the heist of the century” in an op-ed for the New York Daily News. During his presidency in 2019, he reiterated his doubts, telling reporters, “you have people on both sides of that. They admitted their guilt.”
Yusef Salaam, now a New York City council member, attended the September debate and confronted Trump afterward, asking him to apologize to “the exonerated five.” According to the lawsuit, Trump responded, “Are you on my side then?” Salaam replied, “No, no, no, I’m not on your side.”
Trump’s campaign dismissed the lawsuit, labeling it as a politically motivated attack intended to interfere with the election. A spokesperson described it as “another frivolous, election interference lawsuit, filed by desperate leftwing activists,” as reported by ABC News.
The case has drawn renewed attention to Trump’s long history of public statements about the Central Park Five. Trump’s involvement began shortly after the arrests of the five youths, who were Black and Hispanic, when he paid for a full-page newspaper ad calling for harsh penalties. The ad and Trump’s continued refusal to apologize for his stance have sparked significant controversy over the years, especially in light of the men’s subsequent exoneration.