The "Central Park 5," a group of five men who were wrongfully convicted of rape and assault in 1989, are suing former President Donald Trump for defamation after he’s repeatedly claimed they were responsible for the crime, most recently in the 2024 presidential debate.
“Plaintiffs have suffered injuries as a result of Defendant Trump’s false and defamatory statements and bring this lawsuit to obtain redress,” the filing reads.
The lawsuit was filed by Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise. In 1989, the five men were falsely accused of brutally raping and beating 28-year-old Trisha Meili while she was jogging in Central Park. The men, who were between 14 and 16 at the time, served several years in prison before being exonerated in 2002. The case exposed racial inequities at the heart of the American criminal justice system.
Trump’s attacks on the "Central Park 5" span back nearly 30 years. Just two weeks after Meili was attacked, Trump took out full page ads in major New York City newspapers calling for the teenage boys to be executed.
“During our trial, it seemed like every New Yorker had an opinion. But no one took it further than Trump. He called for blood in the most public way possible,” Salaam wrote in an article for The Washington Post.
Even after the men were exonerated, Trump has insisted they are guilty. “If you look at some of the prosecutors, they think that the city never should have settled that case — so we’ll leave it at that,” he said in 2019.
When Vice President Kamala Harris brought up Trump’s history with the Central Park 5 during the presidential debate on Sept. 10, Trump lied once again, falsely claiming that the group pleaded guilty and "killed a person ultimately.”
“These statements are demonstrably false. 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 filing reads.
The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of compensation.
