Three men exonerated in the 1989 Central Park Jogger case: Yusef Salaam, left, Kevin Richardson, second left, and Raymond Santana, right, in 2012. Photo: Frank Franklin II/AP

Editor's Note: With the release of Netflix's miniseries “When They See Us,” there is renewed interest in the criminal prosecution in the assault of the Central Park jogger. So, we're sharing this story that we posted in July of 2018.

Attorneys for the wrongly convicted men known as the Central Park Five said the first portion of a massive trove of documents and other materials from their criminal and civil cases, released late on Thursday evening via a New York City government website, paint an unfavorably biased portrait of their exonerated clients.

But the city's Law Department defended the piecemeal release of the materials, saying that a “substantial” amount of the materials are ready for disclosure, and that it's in the interest of the public to start releasing what's ready to go rather than waiting for final completion of the review process.

“The city determined that it was not in the public interest to delay the posting of all the documents until the very last document has been reviewed,” said Law Department spokesman Nicholas Paolucci, who said another tranche of documents would be released in the coming weeks.

Since 2015, city attorneys have been working with attorneys from Beldock Levine & Hoffman, which represents four of the five defendants who were convicted and later cleared of the 1989 beating and rape of Patricia Meili, to pore over the roughly 200,000 documents and depositions from 95 parties generated from their case to prepare them for release to the public.

The first batch of materials to be released is from the original investigation and prosecution of Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana Jr., Kharey Wise and Yusef Salaam, who were all teenagers at the time of the attack.

On April 19, 1989, Meili was one of 10 victims who were attacked by what was described as a marauding band of some 30 youths in Central Park.

In 2002, Matias Reyes, who was serving time for murder and sexual assault, came forward and admitted that he had been the one who attack Meili and that he acted alone, which was backed up by matching him with DNA evidence found at the crime scene. 

Following an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, in 2003, all five men had their convictions tossed out. They then filed suit against the city, alleging that they were wrongfully convicted.

After 11 years of litigation, in 2014, the city reached a $41 million settlement with the Central Park Five. The New York Times filed a motion to intervene in the case for the purpose of compelling disclosure of discovery materials, but the motion was denied in 2015 after the city agreed to unseal requested materials.

Included in the first batch of materials are audio files of 911 calls from the night of the attacks in Central Park as well as video of interviews with four of the five defendants and others who were in the park that night.

But Beldock Levine partner Karen Dippold said attorneys for the exonerated had insisted throughout the review process on releasing all materials from the case at once, and that just releasing the materials from the original investigation provides a “biased concept of what transpired.” 

“We think it's not giving an evenhanded presentation of the facts in the case,” Dippold said. She said that future releases of materials, which include the files from re-investigations by the Manhattan DA and the New York City Police Department, will provide a fairer picture of her clients.

Aside from the news of the document release, the 29-year-old case has attracted attention more recently because of statements by President Donald Trump, who famously took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the executions of the Central Park Five, refusing to back away from his position in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Linda Fairstein, who headed up the Manhattan DA's sex crimes unit in 1989 and who worked on the investigation in the Meili case, said she thinks the material released on Thursday and those coming in subsequent releases will help “change the narrative back to the truth.”

Fairstein pointed to not only the interviews with the defendants themselves, but from others who were in Central Park on the night in question who say they saw the defendants assault two other victims.

“If anyone is reluctant, there will be more and more information that will confirm the original verdict and reveal even more facts that weren't available at trial,” she said.