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Sixth man linked to 1989 Central Park rape case is exonerated

Sixth man linked to 1989 Central Park rape case is exonerated

Steven Lopez, now 48, pleaded guilty to lesser charge in case of attacked jogger then seen as emblematic of New York lawlessness

A forgotten co-defendant of the so-called “Central Park Five”, whose convictions in a notorious 1989 rape in New York City were thrown out more than a decade later, is set have his conviction on a related charge overturned.

A hearing was scheduled for Monday afternoon in the case of Steven Lopez, who was arrested along with five other Black and Latino teenagers in the rape and assault on Trisha Meili but reached a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to the lesser charge of robbing a male jogger.

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The brutal assault on Meili, a 28-year-old white investment banker who was in a coma for 12 days after the attack, was considered emblematic of New York City’s lawlessness in an era when the city recorded 2,000 murders a year.

Five teenagers were convicted in the attack on Meili and served six to 13 years in prison. Their convictions were overturned in 2002 after evidence linked a convicted serial rapist and murderer, Matias Reyes, to the attack.

The Central Park Five, now known as the “Exonerated Five”, went on to win a $40m settlement from the city and inspire books, movies and television shows.

Lopez, now 48, has not received a settlement, and his case has been nearly forgotten in the years since he pleaded guilty to robbery in 1991 to avoid the more serious rape charge.

Lopez’s expected exoneration was first reported in the New York Times.

“We talk about the Central Park Five, the Exonerated Five, but there were six people on that indictment,” the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, told the Times. “And the other five who were charged, their convictions were vacated. And it’s now time to have Mr Lopez’s charge vacated.”

The Associated Press does not usually identify victims of sexual assault, but Meili went public in 2003 and published a book titled I Am the Central Park Jogger.

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  • New York
  • US politics
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Source: US Politics - theguardian.com


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