BACKGROUND: From a previous post of this Blog; October 24, 2024: "The Central Park Five: Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown, and Korey Wise. Major (Welcome) Development. "These now-exonerated men allege Trump spoke falsely of their case with "reckless disregard" in a lawsuit which claims thatTrump defamed the men during the debate in September when he said they confessed and pleaded guilty to crimes they were falsely accused of…."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”. PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "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." (Yikes! H.L.) PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "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.”
https://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-central-park-five-yusef-salaam.html
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Defendant's assertions—that Plaintiffs pleaded guilty and that Plaintiffs killed someone—can be 'objectively determined' to be false, so Defendant's statement must be construed as one of fact, not opinion," the judge wrote. "For the reasons set forth above, Defendant's Motion to Dismiss shall be denied as to Plaintiffs' defamation claim," the ruling added. The judge, however, dismissed additional claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress without prejudice, "thus allowing Plaintiffs leave to amend their Complaint with respect to that theory and that claim."
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STORY: "Judge says Trump must face Central Park Five defamation suit," by David Edwards, published by 'The Raw Story." on April 10, 2025. (David Edwards has spent over a decade reporting on social justice, human rights and politics for Raw Story. He also writes Crooks and Liars. He has a background in enterprise resource planning and previously managed the network infrastructure for the North Carolina Department of Correction.)
GIST: "U.S. District Court Judge Wendy Beetlestone declined this week to dismiss a defamation lawsuit against President Donald Trump by a group of Hispanic and Black men known as the Central Park Five.
The men, who were wrongly imprisoned for the 1989 rape of a white jogger, sued Trump over comments he made during a debate with then-Vice President Kamala Harris last year.
Trump falsely stated that the men had killed a person and pleaded guilty. The president's lawyers said the statements were protected on First Amendment free speech grounds.
In a 20-page ruling on Thursday, Beetlestone said the court did not agree that Trump's words were statements of opinion.
"Defendant's assertions—that Plaintiffs pleaded guilty and that Plaintiffs killed someone—can be 'objectively determined' to be false, so Defendant's statement must be construed as one of fact, not opinion," the judge wrote.
"For the reasons set forth above, Defendant's Motion to Dismiss shall be denied as to Plaintiffs' defamation claim," the ruling added.
The judge, however, dismissed additional claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress without prejudice, "thus allowing Plaintiffs leave to amend their Complaint with respect to that theory and that claim."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-central-park-five-lawsuit/
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;
