GIST: "Five men wrongly convicted of attacking a jogger in Central Park decades ago have sued Donald Trump, accusing him of making “false and defamatory” statements during a recent presidential debate.
The lawsuit claims Trump defamed the men during the debate in September when he said they confessed and pleaded guilty to crimes they were falsely accused of.
The plaintiffs, known as the Central Park Five - Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown, and Korey Wise - were teenagers who pleaded not guilty to rape and assault in the 1989 case.
They were wrongfully convicted, but exonerated in 2002 after serving years in prison.
The lawsuit, which was filed Monday, cites several statements Trump made after opponent Kamala Harris attacked him for buying ads that called for the death penalty at a time when the public was consumed by the case.
“They admitted - they said, they pled guilty,” Trump said, after Vice-President Harris criticised him for his past statements about the case. “And I said, well, if they pled guilty, they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately.”
The lawsuit alleges that Trump made the comments “negligently” and “with reckless disregard for their falsity".
The men accuse Trump of omitting “key facts", which rendered "his statements false”.
The men have said their confessions to police were coerced. The victim in the case survived the attack.
The lawsuit notes that Manhattan prosecutors later acknowledged flaws in their case, that they were exonerated in 2002, and that DNA evidence and a confession ultimately pointed to the true perpetrator.
The men's attorney, Shanin Specter, said in a statement Monday that the men “seek to correct the record and clear their names once again”.
Steven Chueng, a Trump spokesperson, responded in a statement shared with the BBC, saying the lawsuit is "just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists to distract the American people".
The Central Park Five case consumed New York City for years, exposing deep fault lines around race, crime, and inequality in the criminal justice system.
The men's exoneration raised questions about policing and the work of prosecutors at the time.
The men, who are black and Latino, are now collectively known as the “Exonerated Five”. In 2014, they settled a lawsuit with New York City for $41m.
In 1989, as the case gripped the city’s headlines, Trump infamously took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times and other regional newspapers calling to “bring back the death penalty.”
Though the ad did not specifically mention the Central Park Five, it ran while the city faced intense debate ignited by the crime.
“I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer, and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes,” the advertisement stated.
Harris cited the ad during the debate, when she alleged that "this is the same individual (Trump) who 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.”
That is when Trump made the series of false statements, the lawsuit says.
Salaam, one of the Central Park Five who is a currently a member of the New York City Council, attended the September presidential debate.
The court documents and a video provided by the plaintiffs show an exchange he had with Trump after the event.
“President Trump, I’m Yusef Salaam, one of the Exonerated Five. How are you doing?” he said, according to the lawsuit.
The former president allegedly responded “Ah, you’re on my side then.”
Mr Salaam replied, “No, no, no, I’m not on your side.”
“Defendant Trump proceeded to wave his hand at Plaintiff Salaam, smile and walk away,” the lawsuit states."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
- SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
