False Confessions | Steve Lopez, Michael Briscoe, and Lamont McCall

The Central Park jogger case was a criminal case in the United States based on the assault and rape of Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old white woman who was jogging in the park, and attacks on eight other persons, in areas ranging from the North Woods to the Reservoir of Manhattan's Central Park, on the night of April 19, 1989. Three of the victims were black or Latino. Meili was so badly injured that she was in a coma for 12 days. The New York Times in 1990 described the attack on her as "one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980s".

Attacks in Central Park that night were allegedly committed by a loose group of 30–32 teenagers, and police attempted to apprehend suspects after crimes began to be reported between 9 and 10 p.m. The brutally beaten Meili was not found until 1:30 a.m., after which the police hunt greatly intensified. They took into custody 14 or more other suspects over the next few days, and arrested a total of ten suspects who were ultimately tried for the attacks. Among them were four African American and two Hispanic American teenagers who were indicted on May 10 on charges of assault, robbery, riot, rape, sexual abuse, and attempted murder of Meili and an unrelated man, John Loughlin. The prosecutor planned to try the defendants in two groups, then scheduled the sixth defendant to be tried last. The latter pleaded guilty in January 1991 on lesser charges and received a reduced sentence.

Prosecution of the five remaining defendants in the rape and assault case was based primarily on confessions which they had made after police interrogations. None had counsel during this questioning. Within weeks, they each withdrew these confessions, pleaded not guilty, and refused plea deals on the rape and assault charges. None of the suspects' DNA matched the DNA collected from the crime scene: two semen samples that both belonged to one unidentified man. No substantive physical evidence connected any of the five teenagers to the rape scene, but each was convicted in 1990 of related assault and other charges. Subsequently, known as the Central Park Five, they received sentences ranging from 5 to 15 years. Four of the defendants appealed their convictions, but these were affirmed by appellate courts. The four juvenile defendants served 6–7 years each; the 16-year-old, tried and sentenced as an adult, served 13 years in adult prison. The five other defendants, indicted for assaults of other victims, pleaded guilty to reduced charges and received less severe sentences.

In 2001, Matias Reyes, a convicted murderer and serial rapist serving life in prison, confessed to officials that he had raped the female jogger. His DNA matched that found at the scene, and he provided other confirmatory evidence. He said he committed the rape alone. Reyes could not be prosecuted for raping Meili, because the statute of limitations had passed. In 2002 Robert Morgenthau, District Attorney for New York County, had his office conduct an investigation and recommended to the state court that the convictions of the five men on all charges be vacated. The court vacated their convictions in 2002, and the state withdrew all charges against the men.

In 2003, the five men sued the City of New York for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress. The city refused to settle the suits for a decade, because its lawyers believed that the city could win a court case. After a change in administration, the city settled in 2014 with the five plaintiffs for $41 million. The five men also filed suit against the State of New York for additional damages; this case was settled in 2016 for a total of $3.9 million.

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