“Central Park Five” File Defamation Lawsuit Against Donald Trump

Ryan J. Farrick — October 23, 2024

Former President Trump. Image via Flickr/user: Gage Skidmore. (CCA-BY-2.0)

“Let’s remember, this is the same individual who took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of five young Black and Latino boys who were innocent, the Central Park Five,” the lawsuit alleges. “[Trump] took out a full-page ad calling for their execution.”

The “Central Park Five” have filed a defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump.

According to NBC News, the lawsuit focuses on a series of comments made by Trump during the September 10 presidential debate in Pennsylvania. In the debate, Trump said that the five men—Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise—pleaded guilty after being tried for the assault and rape of a woman who had been jogging in Central Park on the night of April 19, 1989.

Trump also stated that the victim of the assault passed away shortly afterward.

In reality, the victim survived—and each of the Central Park Five had pleaded not guilty, maintaining their innocence even after being convicted. However, the five men were convicted and spent years behind bars. They were eventually exonerated in 2002 after DNA evidence linked another man, a serial rapist, to the assault.

After their release, the Central Park Five filed a lawsuit against New York City and received an estimated $41 million in compensation. But, at the time of the trial, Trump took an intensely combative stance on the case, purchasing large newspaper advertisements demanding that the men face the death penalty.

During the September debate, Kamala Harris referenced the advertisement, starting the same exchange that ended with Trump’s allegedly defaming remarks against the Central Park Five.

A major Presidential candidate. Photo by Michael Vadon, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0

“Let’s remember, this is the same individual who took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of five young Black and Latino boys who were innocent, the Central Park Five,” the lawsuit alleges. “[Trump] took out a full-page ad calling for their execution.”

Trump, adds CNN, criticized the exoneration before winning the 2016 general election.

In October 2016, for instance, Trump stood by decision to take out newspaper advertisements, saying that the men had “admitted they were guilty.” And, in 2014, Trump sent an op-ed to the New York Daily News calling the $41 million settlement “a disgrace.”

Now, in their claim against Trump, the Central Park five say that the former president’s comments during the debate were “false and insulting.” Attorneys for the men say that Trump effectively attributed to them the “commission of criminal offenses, including offenses for which plaintiffs have never been charged or accused, offenses for which they were acquitted at trial and offenses for which they were conclusively exonerated and their convictions sealed.”

The lawsuit also provides detail on an exchange Salaam allegedly had with Trump in the “spin room” shortly after the debate. Salaam, says CBS News, introduced himself to the former president as one of the “Exonerated Five.” He tried to speak to Trump, but was purportedly rebuffed and ignored.