Central Park Five Settlement is Still in Limbo

ColorLines

For the Central Park Five--Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise--the election of New York mayor Bill de Blasio could be a blessing. In 1989, when they were teenagers, the five black and Latino men were falsely accused of and convicted of the brutal beating and rape of Tricia Meili, a 28-year-old white jogger in Central Park. In the sensational, racially charged case, they were coerced into confessions by police and prosecutor Elizabeth Lederer. The five, who were tried as adults and convicted of the crime despite their inconsistent testimony and a lack of their DNA on the victim, had their convictions vacated in 2002 after serial rapist Matias Reyes admitted that he'd committed the rape. That same year the five filed a $250 million civil suit against the city of New York and the officers and prosecutor involved in their case. McCray, Richardson, Salaam, Santana and Wise have waited for a settlement ever since. 

In mid-November filmmaker Ken Burns, who directed the documentary "The Central Park Five," renewed media interest in the settlement when he told HuffPost Live that the mayor-elect, had "agreed to settle this case."

Further reporting by Colorlines showed that "agreement," however, had come in the shape of an old campaign promise: "It's long past time to heal these wounds," DeBlasio said in a January 2013 statement. "... As a city, we have a moral obligation to right this injustice. It is in our collective interest--the wrongly accused, their families and the taxpayer--to settle this case and not let another year slip by without action."

At present, says de Blasio spokesman Wiley Norvell, there is no timeline for the settlement.. Colorlines talked to Yusef Salaam, one of the five, about the long wait for closure, holding the mayor-elect accountable for his campaign promise, and what he'd say if he had a sit-down with de Blasio.