Records about Central Park Five released

NEW YORK — A lawyer for five men wrongly convicted in the vicious 1989 rape of a Central Park jogger said Friday that the release of investigative records leaves them “reliving the horror” of their experiences.

“The stigma that they were these horrible animals engaged in wilding has followed them through their life,” said Jonathan Moore, one of several attorneys who secured a $41 million settlement in 2014 on their behalf.

Nearly all the documents were part of the court record or were shared with lawyers who prepared a defense for the black and Hispanic teenagers who became known as the Central Park Five.

They served six to 13 years in prison before the convictions were thrown out in 2002 after evidence linked Matias Reyes, a murderer and serial rapist, to the attack.

The victim, who is white, was found with over 75 percent of her blood drained from her body and her skull smashed. She was in a coma for 12 days, suffered permanent damage and remembered nothing about the attack.

At the time, she was a 28-year-old investment banker who ran regularly in Central Park.

The attack occurred as the city was reaching a peak of 2,000 annual murders. Reports that youths were roaming the park and attacking people gave rise to the term “wilding” for urban mayhem by marauding teenagers.

The jogger, Trisha Meili, told the New York Daily News she was eager to see the documents.

The Associated Press does not usually identify victims of sexual assault, but Meili went public as a motivational speaker and wrote a book.

Of the Central Park Five, only one lives in the New York area anymore, Moore said.

“Notwithstanding that they got some money, they have never recovered from the emotional trauma,” the lawyer said.