Central Park Five sue Donald Trump for jogger case remarks made at presidential debate
The men formerly known as the Central Park Five before they were acquitted filed a defamation lawsuit against the Republican presidential candidate on Monday. Donald Trump.
With Election Day still two weeks away, the group accused the former president of making “false and defamatory statements” about them during last month’s presidential debate with the vice president. Kamala Harris. The group is asking for a jury trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages.
“Defendant Trump falsely stated that Plaintiffs murdered an individual and pleaded guilty to the crime. These statements are demonstrably false,” the group wrote in the federal complaint.
The men are upset that Trump has essentially “insulted them in front of 67 million people, prompting them to once again try to clear their names,” co-lead attorney Shanin Specter told The Associated Press in an email.
Specter had no comment when asked if there were concerns that some may view the lawsuit as purely political because of the group’s support of Harris. “We are seeking redress in the courts,” Specter said.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung blasted the lawsuit as “just another frivolous election interference lawsuit filed by desperate left-wing activists in an attempt to distract the American people from Kamala Harris’ dangerously liberal agenda and failing campaign.”
Trump campaign officials did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise were teenagers when they were charged with the 1989 rape and assault of a white jogger in New York City’s Central Park. The five, who are black and Latino, said they confessed to the crimes under duress. They later recanted, pleaded not guilty in court, and were later convicted after a jury trial. Their convictions were lifted in 2002 after another person confessed to the crime.
After the crime, Trump bought a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty. At the time, many in New York believed Trump’s ad was similar to a call for the teens’ execution. The jogger case was Trump’s first foray into a tough-on-crime policy, which preceded his full-throated populist political persona. The dog has been whistling openly ever since racist rhetoric have been fixtures in Trump’s public life.
In the September 10 debate, Trump misrepresented the key facts of the case when Harris raised the issue.
“They admitted, they said they pled guilty and I said, ‘well, if they pled guilty, they seriously hurt someone and ended up killing a person… And they pled guilty, then they pled not guilty,’” Trump said.
He seemed to confuse guilty pleas with confessions. No victim has died either.
The now acquitted five, including Salaam, who is now a New York City councilman, campaigned for Harris. Some of them spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August, calling out Trump for never apologizing for the newspaper ad.
They also aligned themselves with civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton for a period of bus tour to vote.
Previous defamation cases involving Trump have resulted in significant sums awarded to plaintiffs. In January, a jury awarded $83.3 million to advice columnist E. Jean Carroll due to Trump’s continued attacks on social media over her claims that he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store in 1996. In May 2023 a jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting her and issued a $5 million judgment.