Exonerated ‘Central Park Five’ sue Trump for defamation after debate comments

The five men from the infamous Central Park case who call themselves the Exonerated Five have filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump.

The lawsuit stems from his remarks during the presidential debate last month.

Exonerated Five lawsuit against Donald Trump

During the Sept. 10 debate in Pennsylvania, Trump said the five men, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise, pleaded guilty when they were tried in connection with the assault and rape of a woman who had been running in Central Park on April 19, 1989, and that the victim had died.

During the debate he said: “They admitted, they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately. And if they pled guilty, then they pled we’re not guilty.”

At the time of the trials, each men had actually pleaded not guilty, and the victim of the attack survived.

According to the complaint, Trump’s statements are “demonstrably false,” adding that “Plaintiffs never pled guilty to any crime and were subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing. Further the victims of the Central Park assaults were not killed.”

The complaint further added that the men, now in their 50s, have “suffered injuries as a result of Defendant Trump’s false and defamatory statements.”

Falsely accused

The Exonerated Five, who were just teenagers when they were indicted, had always maintained their innocence throughout their separate trials and incarceration.

Each were charged with the assault of the female jogger, as well as other assaults and robberies in Central Park.

They five spent years in prison before they were exonerated in 2002 after DNA evidence linked another man, a serial rapist, to the crime. The city agreed in a legal settlement to pay the exonerated men $41 million.

This happened during a time of heightened racial tensions coupled with the case dominating headlines. Trump, then a real estate mogul, had taken out large ads in newspapers referencing the case calling for New York to bring back the death penalty.

The defamation suit was filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The complaint noted that Salaam, a New York City Council member representing District 9, was at the debate and in the room when Trump made the statements.

In the lawsuit the men did not specify damages and asked for a trial to determine the amount.