The five men known as the Central Park Five, now called the Exonerated Five—Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise—have filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump. The lawsuit stems from statements Trump made during a September 10 debate, where he falsely claimed the men had pleaded guilty in the 1989 assault and rape of a jogger in Central Park, and that the victim had died.
The lawsuit highlights that the men never pleaded guilty and were exonerated in 2002 after DNA evidence linked another man to the crime. The complaint calls Trump’s claims “demonstrably false,” noting that the assault victim survived, and the men were cleared of wrongdoing. The suit, filed in Pennsylvania, alleges that Trump’s statements caused them harm.
The case dates back to 1989, when the five were teenagers. They were wrongfully convicted and spent years in prison before being cleared. At the time of the trial, Trump, then a real estate mogul, had called for the death penalty. The men previously received a $41 million settlement from New York City.
Trump’s campaign dismissed the lawsuit as “frivolous” and politically motivated.
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