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Members of the “Central Park Five,” also known as the “Exonerated Five,” are suing former President Donald Trump regarding “false, misleading and defamatory” comments he made during the presidential debate on ABC News last month, the men’s attorneys announced.
Attorneys for Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise filed the federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Monday. The complaint obtained by USA TODAY claims that during the debate, Trump falsely said that the “Central Park Five” members killed someone and pled guilty to the crime in 1989.
The former president’s comments came after Vice President Kamala Harris said he “took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of five young Black and Latino boys who were innocent, the Central Park Five,” according to a news release from the men’s attorneys, Shanin Specter and Alexander Van Dyke. In response to Harris, Trump allegedly said the men “admitted – they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately.”
“The truth is that none of the Central Park Five pled guilty, nor was anyone killed during the assault,” Specter and Van Dyke said in the release.
The attorneys also said Trump omitted facts during his statement, including that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office later acknowledged that the then teens’ confessions were unreliable and conflicted with evidence, that the convictions were all later vacated by the court in 2002, that Matias Reyes confessed to being the true perpetrator and that the city of New York agreed to pay the men $41 million for its conduct during the investigation.
“The lawsuit alleges that Donald Trump defamed the Plaintiffs, cast them in a harmful false light and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on them. The Plaintiffs seek to correct the record and clear their names once again,” Specter said in the release.
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Trump took out scathing advertisement in 1989 calling for death of Central Park assaulters
The “Central Park Five,” who are now all between the ages of 50 and 52, were wrongly convicted for a series of assaults that occurred in Central Park in New York City on April 19, 1989, according to the lawsuit. At the time of their convictions, the members were between 14 and 16 years old.
When initially interviewed by police in 1989, the teenagers denied having any knowledge of the Central Park assaults, including that of Patricia Meili. But after hours of “coercive interrogation,” four of the boys agreed to provide written and videotaped statements admitting to being present during the assaults, the lawsuit reads.
On May 1, 1989, 11 days after the assault and rape of Meili in Central Park, Trump published a full-page advertisement in four New York City newspapers alluding to the crimes. The advertisement did not identify the suspects, but called for the city of New York 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!”
“I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer… I want to hate these murderers and I always will… I am looking to punish them… I want them to understand our anger. I want them to be afraid,” Trump wrote in the advertisement, per the lawsuit.
Trump did not apologize for comments in post-debate spin room
Immediately following the debate on Sept. 10, Trump passed through the spin room to answer questions from attendees, including Yusef Salaam, the lawsuit reads. During this post-debate event, the Republican presidential nominee was asked, “Will you apologize to the Exonerated Five?” and “Sir, what do you say to a member of the Central Park Five, sir?”
Trump allegedly did not respond to the question, which prompted Salaam to say, “President Trump, I’m Yusef Salaam, one of the Exonerated Five. How are you doing?” Trump responded, “Ah, you’re on my side then.” Salaam then said, “No, no, no, I’m not on your side.”
Trump would then wave his hand at Salaam, smile and walk, according to the lawsuit.
“Plaintiff Salaam was attempting to politely dialogue with Defendant Trump about the false and defamatory statements that Defendant Trump had made about Plaintiffs less than an hour earlier, but Defendant Trump refused to engage with him in dialogue,” the lawsuit alleges.
