NEW YORK — A long-forgotten sixth suspect in the notorious 1989 Central Park Five rape case is to be exonerated Monday, more than 30 years after he pleaded guilty to a lesser crime, the Manhattan district attorney’s office announced.
Steven Lopez was 14 years old when he was arrested along with the Central Park Five — Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam. The more well-known five were convicted separately of raping a white woman jogging in the park ― a crime that outraged the city and contributed to racial tensions across the five boroughs.
Lopez pleaded guilty to robbing a male jogger that same night to avoid a more ruinous rape conviction. He was sentenced to 1 1/2 to 4 1/2 years in state prison. He served more than three years of his sentence and did not appeal his conviction.
