Exonerated 'Central Park Five' sue Trump for defamation after debate comments
The five men who make up the Central Park Five and now call themselves the Exonerated Five have filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump over his remarks during the presidential debate last month.
The five men who make up the Central Park Five and now call themselves the Exonerated Five have filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump over his remarks during the presidential debate last month.
The lawsuit focuses on the Sept. 10 debate in Pennsylvania, where Trump said the five men — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise — pleaded guilty when they were tried in connection with the assault and rape of a woman who had been running in Central Park on April 19, 1989, and that the victim had died.
During the debate he said: "They admitted — they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately. And if they pled guilty — then they pled we’re not guilty."
At the time of the trials, each had pleaded not guilty, and the victim of the attack survived.
The complaint said Trump's statements are "demonstrably false," adding: "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 complaint further said that the men, now in their 50s, have "suffered injuries as a result of Defendant Trump’s false and defamatory statements."
Rating: 5