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Prosecutor, Police May Be Sued in Central Park Jogger Case
By Patricia Hurtado
Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and the New York Police Department may be sued for malicious prosecution by five men wrongly convicted of a 1989 attack on a female jogger in Central Park, a judge ruled.
Can someone please remind me, am I remembering it correctly that these young men actually confessed at the time to this crime? Or am I thinking of something else?
Can someone please remind me, am I remembering it correctly that these young men actually confessed at the time to this crime? Or am I thinking of something else?
sequence of events:
lady jogs in park
lady gets raped
black youths accused of rape
kids confess
trump takes out ad in city papers pushing for re in statement of death penalty in NYC
Some random psycho gets arrested many years later and confesses to the rape, and DNA proves he isn't lying
Youths get released, and they do interviews.
Say they made false confessions under duress
law suits ensue and tax payer money to be dispersed to wrongfully accused because of scum bag law enforcement (not all law enforcement are scum bags).
OK, you guys forgot one little fact... these kids were out robbing people that night in Central park and happened to come across this woman after she was beaten and raped. If I remember correctly, they even went through her stuff to take anything of value while she lay there dying. Not one of them called for help, not one of them made sure she was OK.... they are the scumbags!
At the time, the detectives did not have the luxury of DNA tests. They had numerous witnesses who saw them wilding through the park around the time of the crime. The police followed the leads and the kids confessed. So now, why are the cops scumbags? These kids were put to trial, prosecuted by the DA's office and were convicted by you... a jury panel of their peers (the liberal, crime-weary Manhattan residents). That is three levels of scrutinization that these facts had to get passed. So it just wasn't the detectives who thought these kids were guilty.
You guys are very quick to jump at the "wrongful arrest" and "confessions under duress" statements but they did what they thought was right under difficult circumstances.
I wonder how many rapes, robberies, and murders would ever be solved if they were investigated by the cop's critics? It's so much easier to sit in the stands and act like you know how to throw a 50 yd TD pass than to get on the field and actually throw such a pass w/ five 250 lb. Linebackers closing in on you.
DNA would have been helpful, but unfortunately that tool wasn't available at the time. Also unfortunate was the fact that these kids were in the park robbing people. That doesn't justify any wrongful convictions, especially for such a brutal rape, but it makes your defense that much more difficult to present.
A quick search turned up other assaults that night... I'd have to do a more thotough search for the robberies. I am not condoning unlawful arrests but the cops did their best with what they had to work with... these were bads kids who were lying to the police. If they had been honest from the beginning they would have had a better chance in trial or even the grand jury, for that matter.
Quote:
One of the first youths arrested in the Central Park rape case said minutes after his capture, ''I know who did the murder! I know who did the murder!'' and offered to lead the police to the suspect's home, a police officer testified yesterday.
One of the first youths arrested in the Central Park rape case said minutes after his capture, ''I know who did the murder! I know who did the murder!'' and offered to lead the police to the suspect's home, a police officer testified yesterday.
The witness, Officer Robert Powers, said the youth, Clarence Thomas, 14 years old, also offered to tell the police where they could find the person responsible for the ''murder.''
''I'll tell you where he lives.'' the officer quoted the youth as saying.
Officer Powers said Kevin Richardson, who was also arrested on April 19, referred to the ''murder'' and said he knew who did it, too. Escaped a Roundup
He said both suspects identified Antron McCray, 15, who appeared voluntarily at the Central Park Precinct station house after escaping a police effort to round up about 30 youths accused of randomly attacking people in the park.
Mr. McCray was later arrested along with Mr. Richardson, 15. Both were charged with attempted murder and rape in the attack on a 28-year-old woman who was jogging along the 102d Street Transverse Road.
The four other defendants charged with her rape and attempted murder are Steven Lopez, 15; Raymond Santana, 15, Kharey Wise, 17, and Yusef Salaam, 15.
The six defendants, and a seventh, Michael Briscoe, 16, are also accused of beating a male jogger, John Loughlin, and it was unclear last night whether the reference to the ''murder'' involved the woman or the man.
Debate on Suspects' Rights
Officer Powers's testimony came at a pretrial hearing in State Supreme Court in Manhattan to determine whether incriminating statements most of the defendants in the rape case made could be admitted as evidence at their trial.
The defense contends that the statements were coerced from the defendants and should not be used as evidence. The prosecution asserts that the defendant's constitutional rights were upheld by the police. He Scolded Them
In his testimony before Justice Thomas B. Galligan, Officer Powers said Mr. Thomas, who was arrested but never indicted, said he knew where the marauding youths had hidden a pipe that the police said was used to bludgeon the victim. She suffered permanent brain damage and cannot remember the attack.
Officer Powers also testified that after Mr. Richardson and Mr. Thomas were joined at the station house by three other youths who were arrested - Mr. Santana, Mr. Lopez and Lamont McCall, a 13-year-old who was later released - he scolded them, saying, ''You guys shouldn't be out there beating up people, you should be with your girlfriends.''
He said Mr. Santana told Mr. Lopez, ''I already got mine.'' He said both youths laughed. He said he also asked Mr. McCray ''to look me in the eye and tell me the truth, did you hit anyone in the park tonight?''
He said Mr. McCray looked away and did not reply, although Mr. McCray later admitted that he was in the park.
Most of the defendants have made statements minimizing their individual roles in the attack while incriminating others. In their previous appearances in court, the defendants rarely looked, much less spoke to one another. By the end of yesterday's testimony by Officer Powers, they were observed feverishly trying to exchange information.
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