Let's Talk About... The Central Park Five! Ep.27

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[00:09:32] groups of young men came together on the streets of Harlem on the outskirts of Central Park including

[00:09:37] Kevin, Raymond, Antron, Youssef and Corey. The boys weren't all hanging around together,

[00:09:44] a lot of them were playing basketball in the streets and Corey was actually at family dinner.

[00:09:48] Raymond Santana Sr was watching the boys from his home and advised that they go into the

[00:09:52] park as larger groups were gathering and obviously as I touched on earlier the crime

[00:09:56] violence gang wars etc. Raymond Sr felt that there was too much trouble on the streets

[00:10:03] and is quoted as saying he felt guilty too after telling the boys to enter the park

[00:10:07] which I mean you would do really after what happens it's understandable obviously it's not

[00:10:11] his fault but you can understand why you would feel that way. I want to know what happens.

[00:10:15] Yeah well what are you getting into mate? So Corey joined up with the groups of boys whilst

[00:10:21] making his way home from a restaurant when he bumped into Youssef, Kevin and Raymond.

[00:10:25] They noticed a large group which they themselves described as good kids and bad kids. Some out to

[00:10:32] have fun and some out to be wilding so wilding basically just out causing other. Yeah yeah as

[00:10:39] kids do. I mean we did similar things sort of stuff I mean some of the things that happened

[00:10:44] here we didn't do but you know we were always out you know just being little shits basically.

[00:10:50] Yeah this was this was a nice easy. Sort of thought of being a kid I think. Yeah it is it is

[00:10:53] it's not it's one of those things. We used to go out and just be twats and try and get chased

[00:10:57] by the police because we thought it was funny. Yeah yeah. But yeah right then. The group gathered

[00:11:02] at 110th and Madison Street and the four boys noticed in the group Antron McCrae.

[00:11:08] At 9 p.m on April 19th 1989 a group of an estimated 20 to 32 teenagers who lived in East

[00:11:16] Harlem entered Manhattan's Central Park and entrance in Harlem near Central Park North.

[00:11:23] Some of the group committed several attacks assaults and robberies against people.

[00:11:27] That's the stuff we didn't do. Yeah I was kind of saying that's a bit excessive. Yeah who were

[00:11:32] either walking biking or jogging in the northernmost part of the park near the reservoir

[00:11:37] and victims began to report incidents to the police. It isn't clear if any of the

[00:11:41] boys were involved in any of these attacks or behaviors but to this day they all remain

[00:11:45] adamant that they were not. Yeah I mean you would. Yeah yeah. Within the northern woods between 102nd

[00:11:53] and 105th street assailants were reported attacking several cyclists hurling rocks at a cab

[00:11:58] and attacking a pedestrian whom they robbed of his food and beer and left unconscious.

[00:12:03] The teenagers roamed south along the park's East Drive and the 97th street transverse.

[00:12:10] Between 9 and 10 pm police attempted to apprehend suspects after crimes began to be reported between 9 and 10 pm.

[00:12:18] Michael Vigna a competitive bike rider testified that at about 9.05 he was hassled by a group of

[00:12:24] boys one of whom tried to punch him at about 9.15. Antonio Diaz who had been walking in the

[00:12:30] park near 105th street was knocked to the ground by teenagers who stole his bag of food

[00:12:35] and bottle of beer. Gerald Malone and Patricia Dean riding on the tandem bike said that a group

[00:12:42] of boys tried to block their path on East Drive south of 102nd street at about 9.15 pm. Malone

[00:12:49] said that he and Dean sped towards the boys causing them to scatter. Dordene said that a few

[00:12:55] that a few grabbed her the couple called the police after reaching a call box.

[00:13:00] I mean to be fair I must admit this isn't something to be proud of but like if we were

[00:13:05] kids in a park and a couple came along on a fucking tandem bike we probably would have

[00:13:08] took the piss a little bit you know like hey you're fucking doing what you're doing

[00:13:11] yeah yeah i get that i get that yeah yeah i mean you wouldn't start throwing bricks at

[00:13:14] them and grabbing no you don't yeah that's that's where you draw the line

[00:13:19] At least some of the group of teenagers traveled farther south to the area

[00:13:23] around the reservoir and their four male joggers were set upon between 9.25 and 9.50 pm.

[00:13:30] David Lewis testified that he was attacked and robbed at about 9.25 to 9.40 pm. Robert Garner

[00:13:37] said that he was assaulted at about 9.30 pm and David Good testified he was attacked at

[00:13:42] about 9.47 pm. I like how you say about 9.47 as a bit precise it's very precise but fair

[00:13:49] play and between 9.40 yeah between 9.40 and 9.50 John Loughlin was knocked to the ground

[00:14:00] kicked punched and beaten with a pipe and a stick he sustained significant but not

[00:14:05] life-threatening injuries at a pre-trial hearing in october 1989 a police officer

[00:14:11] testified that when Loughlin was found he was bleeding so badly that he looked like he was

[00:14:16] he'd been dunked in a bucket of blood Jesus now again i want to say that there's no clear

[00:14:21] evidence to say whether obviously these these five boys were involved in any of this behavior

[00:14:27] yeah you know they're adamant they're adamant the words and even if there were they have

[00:14:32] definitely suffered enough yeah yeah yeah that's all i will say so 10 pm and the teenagers

[00:14:39] decided to leave central park after hiding from police the group leave via west 95th street

[00:14:45] police also left the park after searching for the youths was unsuccessful now excuse me that

[00:14:51] sound might sound a bit mental you know how can you not find a massive group of fucking

[00:14:55] kids in a park but i do want to stress that big central park is yeah obviously obviously i've

[00:15:00] been there and it's just fucking i'm pretty sure it's somewhere like 800 acres yeah that's

[00:15:04] fucking and i always go on the argument that like an acre is like a football pitch yeah it's

[00:15:10] about right mate i think um 800 football pitches that's around the same size as disney

[00:15:15] and florida disney world so that's massive yeah it is fucking huge but yeah right however

[00:15:22] later police see a group of teenagers that match the description of the teens are walking

[00:15:27] north on central park west the police attempt to arrest the young men but obviously scared they

[00:15:31] try to run away in a desperate attempt not to be arrested jumping over walls to escape many

[00:15:37] of the group get away but five young men are arrested two of these two of these young men

[00:15:42] were kevin richardson and raven santana at this at this moment in time the police are

[00:15:47] not aware of the tack on trisha melee which i'm going to tell you about now mate right

[00:15:52] brace yourself for this one so patricia ellen melee obviously known as trisha a 28 year old

[00:16:01] was going on a regular run in central park shortly before 9 p.m while jogging she was

[00:16:05] knocked down dragged nearly 300 feet off the roadway and violently physically and sexually

[00:16:11] assaulted about four hours later at 1 30 a.m she was found naked gagged tied and covered in mud

[00:16:18] and blood in a shallow ravine about 300 feet north of the 102nd street crossing a wooded

[00:16:25] area of the park the first policeman who saw her said she was beaten as badly as anybody

[00:16:30] i've seen beaten she looked like she was tortured melee was so badly injured that she

[00:16:35] was in a coma for 12 days she had severe hyperthermia severe brain damage severe

[00:16:43] hemorrhagic shock i want to say that hemorrhagic shock yeah a loss of 75 to 80 percent of her blood

[00:16:52] um well she's well she's is she still alive here that just says she's in a coma yeah

[00:16:56] fucking jesus obviously she suffered internal bleeding as well her skull had been fractured

[00:17:01] badly that her left eye was dislodged from its socket which in turn was fractured in 21 places

[00:17:07] fuck yep the path of her feet dragged through the grass was marked so clearly that it could be

[00:17:13] photographed and it was 18 inches wide so melee was not identified for about 24 hours and it

[00:17:20] took days for the police to retrace her movements of that night by the time of the

[00:17:24] trial the first three suspects in june 1990 the new york times characterized the attack

[00:17:29] on the jogger as one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980s no shit sherlock aye yeah

[00:17:37] so yeah i mean like i said she she did survive and obviously i'll i'll do a bit of a

[00:17:42] aftermath on her later on but yeah that's the that's the whole that's the actual crime that's

[00:17:48] yeah that's fucking horrendous yeah horrific isn't it yeah awful awful stuff the thing is

[00:17:54] just worse is he's like say that's fucking brutal and horrific yeah but then the fact that

[00:17:59] what happens to these five just makes it a whole thing this is this is what i'm because

[00:18:05] you've left i've been on a cliffhanger because he kind of told me liam sort of told me what

[00:18:09] it was about but now i don't know what's happened i've stepped away i've not tried

[00:18:15] looking at myself or anything so i'm still in the i'm still in the realms of mystery right

[00:18:21] so now we're going to go through the arrests and investigations so the police took custody of

[00:18:26] raymond santana and kevin richardson both 14 years of age at approximately 10 15 pm on

[00:18:31] central park west and 102nd street anton mccrae and yousef salam both 15 years old were

[00:18:38] brought in for questioning later that day april 20th they had been identified by other youths

[00:18:44] as participants in or present at attacks on other victims in central park corrie weiss 16

[00:18:50] accompanied salam for questioning because they were friends but was but then he ended up getting

[00:18:55] questioned himself so he wasn't even like i said this this is what really pisses me off with

[00:19:01] this case mate so he wasn't even suspected of anything yeah he literally just went there to

[00:19:06] support his friend and he ended up getting dragged all it and he ended up getting dragged

[00:19:09] into it wow exactly and these are these are all coloured is that correct yeah yeah they're

[00:19:16] all either black or latino so i said this is what really fucks me off the most because like

[00:19:20] they say he looked like he just went there to be with his mate yeah but like right one has a few

[00:19:25] questions number you know we'll be away yeah and like he he got fucked over the most so

[00:19:32] analysts analysis let me do that again analysis indicated that none of the suspects dna

[00:19:39] matched either of the two dna samples collected from the crime scene from the jogger's cervix

[00:19:43] and running sock but results were reported as inconclusive by the police

[00:19:50] i know this is back in the day when dna was very much a new thing yeah but to me if it's not

[00:19:55] if it's not there it's not there yeah if it's not a match it's not a match yeah yeah i mean

[00:20:00] i don't know what it was like back then i don't know how accurate it was yeah not very the

[00:20:05] amount of stuff i've watched you know where they caught serial kill because they're all

[00:20:07] floated around around that time yeah it's if it's inconclusive you've got no concrete evidence

[00:20:14] simple as that right so now on to the confessions in inverted commas so the

[00:20:21] videotape confession started on april 21st after the detectives finished

[00:20:27] unrecorded interrogations during which the suspects were in custody for at least seven

[00:20:31] hours santana mccrae and richardson made video statements in the presence of parents

[00:20:36] wise made several statements unaccompanied by any parent guardian or council none of the five

[00:20:43] had defense attorneys during the interrogations of videotape process mccrae richardson salam

[00:20:48] santana and wise told police they had been part of a makeshift group of about 30 people

[00:20:54] some of whom had committed various crimes some of who had merely observed those crimes

[00:21:00] according to a later statement by district attorney nancy ryan all five implicated themselves

[00:21:06] in a number of the crimes which had occurred in the park while the accounts offered of the

[00:21:12] crimes beside the rape were accurate their accounts of the rape contained discrepancies

[00:21:18] as to when where and how to it happened so only wise made any statement about the different

[00:21:25] times and locations of the jogger attack and detectives had to take wise to the park to

[00:21:30] observe the crime scene before he made his videotape confession dodgy straight away in my

[00:21:35] opinion none of the five said that he had raped the jogger but each confessed to having been

[00:21:41] an accomplice each each youth said that they had only helped restrain the jogger or touched her

[00:21:47] sexually while one or more while one or more others had raped her their confessions varied

[00:21:55] as to who they identified as having participated in the rape including naming several youths

[00:22:02] who were never questioned in his untapped confession salam went to the fervent went the

[00:22:07] furthest in admitting some culpability claiming to have struck the jogger with a pipe at

[00:22:13] the beginning of the incident because they say i mean these are like they say 14 15 year old

[00:22:18] kids and stuff and yeah you know you've got i mean we've also we've all seen enough fucking

[00:22:23] police stuff from america yeah then they go brutal you know damn right they do yeah

[00:22:27] so so so they're admitting to parts yeah so like you said this is this is this is that's

[00:22:34] why i put the confessions in quotes because okay it's very much coerced confessions okay

[00:22:40] yeah so although four suspects all except salam confessed on videotape in the presence

[00:22:46] of a parent or guardian who were generally not being present during the interrogations

[00:22:51] each of the four retracted his statement within weeks together they claimed they had

[00:22:55] been intimidated lied to and coerced by police into making false confessions while the confessions

[00:23:01] were videotaped the hours of interrogation that proceeded proceeded the confessions were not

[00:23:07] right yeah that's fucked when taken into custody salam told the police that he was 16

[00:23:13] years old and showed them identification to that effect so like a fake id yeah

[00:23:20] i remember thinking the first hour of this why would you want an idea that says you're 16

[00:23:24] but then in america that means you can drive oh yes yeah so if a suspect had reached 16 years

[00:23:31] of age his parents or guardians were no longer no longer had the right to accompany him during

[00:23:36] police questioning which is ridiculous by the way yeah that's crazy exactly or to refuse to

[00:23:42] permit him to answer any questions after salam's mother arrived at the station she insisted

[00:23:47] that she wanted a lawyer for her son and the police stopped the questioning he neither

[00:23:52] made a videotape nor signed the earlier written statement but the court ruled to accept it as

[00:23:57] evidence before his trial like are you working that out that's fucking mental stupid isn't it

[00:24:03] so detective tom mckenna falsely told salam that his fingerprints had been found on the

[00:24:08] victim's clothing mckenna reported that salam subsequently confessed to being present at the

[00:24:14] scene of the rape years later salam said i would hear them beating up corey wise in

[00:24:19] the next room and they would they would come and look at me and say you realize you're next

[00:24:24] the fear made me feel really like i was going to be able to make it out

[00:24:29] fucking ridiculous isn't it it's fucking horrific because you the part of your mind that

[00:24:36] like i sit here now and i can't i can't i don't want to believe it i don't want to

[00:24:41] believe that he's telling the truth but it happens it does happen we've had scenarios

[00:24:47] where police have come out and they've admitted that same in prisons it's happened all over

[00:24:51] prisons exactly they're fucking horrendous it's terrifying i mean 15 years old and to be

[00:24:57] listening to that and then be told by someone who normally defends humanity exactly but i'm

[00:25:03] pretty sure i'm pretty sure i've seen a mental fact before that something's like like i think

[00:25:07] it's like one percent of the prison population in america are like wrongly convicted yeah which

[00:25:13] doesn't sound like a lot the grand scheme of things i mean america is a fucking big place

[00:25:18] yeah yeah even if you've got a million people in prison and one percent of them are innocent

[00:25:23] is that's 100 people in it yeah 100 or 10 or a thousand yeah i'm horrendous at maths but

[00:25:30] whatever there is that's still too many yeah i guarantee there'll be a lot more a lot

[00:25:33] more than a million people in prison in america yeah damn right damn right that is a lot

[00:25:38] yeah within two weeks of their confessions each of the suspects recanted they argued

[00:25:43] that their statements were coerced by police and their rights to council and miranda warnings

[00:25:49] had been violated you know what that means so they've not they've not been allowed to

[00:25:56] so basically they've not been read the rights you know your whole yeah yeah yeah

[00:25:59] you have the right to remain silent and all that shit yeah yeah yeah yeah they have

[00:26:03] right fuck me man exactly exactly on april 21st senior police investigators held a press

[00:26:10] conference to announce having apprehended about 20 suspects in the attack in the attacks of a

[00:26:16] total of nine people in central park two nights before and began to offer their theory of the

[00:26:22] attack and rape of the female jogger her name was withheld as a victim of a sex crime

[00:26:27] the police said up to 12 youths were believed to have attacked a jogger

[00:26:35] so this is where things get even more mental made so got a little bit of a media coverage

[00:26:42] so donald trump no fuck right off so on may the 1st 1989 donald trump at the time a real

[00:26:50] estate magnate whatever the hell you know that's what he made his money and wondered

[00:26:56] called for the return of the death penalty for for murder in full page advertisements

[00:27:02] published in all four of the city's major newspapers trump said he wanted the criminals

[00:27:07] of every age to be afraid the advertisement which cost an estimated 85 000 us equivalent to

[00:27:16] 209 000 in 2023 said in part now don't laugh at this because i know what you're like

[00:27:23] mayor cock has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts i do not think so

[00:27:34] i want to hate these muggers and murderers they should be forced to suffer yes mayor cock

[00:27:39] i want to hate these murderers and i always will how can our great society tolerate the

[00:27:44] continued brutalization of these citizens by crazed misfits criminals must be told that

[00:27:50] their civil liberties end when an attack on our safety begins i mean i get i get why that's

[00:27:59] been said uh but yeah no when you when you especially in the time it's in that's

[00:28:05] that's the whole eye for an eye argument though yeah yeah like if you kill someone

[00:28:11] do you then deserve to die it depends it's a it's a whole it's a very gray area

[00:28:17] yeah yeah so but i do believe there's there's many people who deserve to die

[00:28:25] but what they've done that is according to contemporaries to a contemporary article in

[00:28:31] the new york amsterdam news the ad was widely condemned including by then mayor cock collin

[00:28:37] moore one of the attorneys defending one of the central park defendants said that the ad

[00:28:42] proved that anything is possible in america and that even a fool can become a multimillionaire

[00:28:47] this is what was quite funny uh according to the defendant of usef salam quoted in february 2016

[00:28:54] article in the guardian trump was the fire starter in 1989 as common citizens were being

[00:29:01] manipulated and swayed into believing that we were guilty salam said his family received

[00:29:06] death threats after papers ran trump's full page ad urging for the death penalty

[00:29:11] so that's fucking crazy in it it's just like it's just ridiculous like just shut up

[00:29:22] you know what i mean yeah that's quite scary to know that because he was obviously when

[00:29:27] he was made president fucking hell right so now onto the trials whoa whoa whoa liam just

[00:29:31] before you get into that mate i just want to run a quick trailer for cryptid creeps and

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[00:29:40] hi i'm natasha with cryptids creeps and conspiracy embark with me on a journey to

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[00:29:52] awaken your curiosity and explore the unknown ask questions and together let's unravel the

[00:29:58] secrets behind the legends carry on with what you were saying please liam all right so now

[00:30:03] we want to get into the trials so right mates i'm going to go through all the trials and

[00:30:10] hearings that took place so on may the 10th 1989 mccrae richardson salam santana and

[00:30:17] wise were indicted with attempted murder and other charges in the attack and rape of the

[00:30:22] female jogger and additional charges related to the attack on david louis the attack and

[00:30:27] robbery of john loefflin and riot the prosecution arranged to try the five defendants in a melee

[00:30:34] case in two separate groups this enabled them to control the order in which certain

[00:30:39] evidence would be introduced to the court so each pleaded not guilty the families of richardson

[00:30:46] and salam were able to make the 25 000 dollar bail imposed by the court the other

[00:30:53] 16 were returned to a juvenile facility to be held until the trial classified as an adult at

[00:30:59] age just 16 corey wise was separated from the others and held in an adult jail on rikers island

[00:31:05] until trial okay now right 16 years old and in rikers i was gonna say rikers as well that's

[00:31:10] like one of the worst ones back then for me so numerous pretrials pretrial hearings were

[00:31:17] conducted by judge thomas d galligan of the state supreme court of manhattan who had been

[00:31:23] assigned the case since 1986 judges were generally assigned by lottery but the court

[00:31:29] administrator assigned him to this case the defense attorneys criticized galligan as being

[00:31:34] biased in the favor of the assistant district attorney and handing down tougher sentences

[00:31:40] the council of the defendants filed a motion for a different judge which was rejected

[00:31:45] defendants challenged the use of the videotape confessions and statements

[00:31:49] arguing that the confessions were coerced and that they had not been properly merandized

[00:31:54] salam argued that his statement should be suppressed because it was made outside of the

[00:32:00] presence of his parents despite the fact that new york law entitled children 15 are younger to

[00:32:05] have their parents with them during the interrogation process galligan ruled that the

[00:32:11] statements were admissible finding that they were made voluntarily in salam's case galligan found

[00:32:17] that salam had lied to the police about his age telling him that he was 16

[00:32:22] and held that salam should not be able to derive the benefit from the falsehood

[00:32:28] which basically said because he's lied is 16 you're getting

[00:32:32] you know not doing you any favors you which yes you shouldn't be lying and having fake

[00:32:38] ideas but for christ's sake that's fucking yeah that's nothing compared to what these

[00:32:42] are being accused of yeah yeah it's not worth your life fucking hell ridiculous mate right so

[00:32:48] the first trial so the first trial which began on june 25th and ended on august 18th 1990

[00:32:55] defendants antron mccrae yousef salam and raymond santana were tried

[00:33:00] each of the teenagers had his own defense council the jury consisted of four white

[00:33:04] americans four black americans three hispanic americans and one asian american

[00:33:10] melee testified at the trial but her identity was not given to the court

[00:33:15] none of the three defense attorneys cross-examined her melee was continually

[00:33:20] harassed by protesters during the case both in the halls of the court and in the courtroom

[00:33:25] itself who yelled obscenities at her such as slut and whore i'm confused why why is she

[00:33:32] getting abuse you tell me i mean i i don't understand that to be honest i mean maybe

[00:33:42] because i'm surmising it's from people obviously who know the who know the kids and everything in

[00:33:46] like i mean she doesn't really know what's happened so like say yeah she's going off

[00:33:50] what she's been told yeah yeah the police and i was gonna say yeah so it'll be a case of

[00:33:54] that minute yeah fucking hell ridiculous isn't it everyone's just been fucked in the arse

[00:34:00] apart from the government themselves exactly so when the defense attorney refused to cross-examine

[00:34:05] her the protesters hackled them as well so the jury deliberated for 10 days before returning

[00:34:12] its verdict on august 18th each of the three youths were acquitted of attempted murder but

[00:34:18] convicted of assault and rape of the female jogger and convicted of assault and robbery of

[00:34:23] john loflin a male jogger who was badly beaten that night in central park at the

[00:34:27] sentencing hearing salam read aloud a poem in which he said i look upon this legal lynching

[00:34:33] as a test by my god ali i and many others know that i told the truth i would never

[00:34:38] disrespect my own religion by lying and he told judge galligan to give me the max

[00:34:46] as sooner or later the truth will come out mccrae told the judge i'm not going to let

[00:34:52] this stop me i'm going to make it santana said everyone knows i'm innocent of the crime

[00:34:57] i never did it salam and mccrae were 15 years old and santana was 14 years old at the time

[00:35:05] of the crime judge thomas b galligan sentenced each of the defendants to

[00:35:09] the maximum allowed for juveniles five to ten years each in a youth correctional facility

[00:35:17] so five to ten years for essentially piss all so yeah this is so i'm assuming we're getting

[00:35:25] to a section where there's concrete evidence that it wasn't them sound right because i i can see how

[00:35:31] what how much you hate this story and how much you're on these kids' side but i'm still in

[00:35:36] the dark here i'm like put it this way billy we're going to find out who actually did it

[00:35:40] right okay never never mind never mind proof that they didn't do it we're going to find

[00:35:44] out who actually did it right okay and when we find out he's gonna you're gonna oh don't

[00:35:48] be just go let's go right okay let's go so onto the second trial so the second trial of

[00:35:54] kevin richardson and corrie wise began on october 20th 1990 and also lasted about two

[00:36:00] months ended in december kevin richardson 14 years old at the time of the crime

[00:36:05] had been free on a 25 000 dollar bail before the trial assistant district attorney elizabeth

[00:36:12] lederer good name had a lengthy opening statement and wise broke down at the

[00:36:18] defense table after it weeping and shouting that she had lied he was removed temporarily

[00:36:24] from the courtroom richardson's defense council made a motion for a mistrial because of the

[00:36:29] potential effect on the jury but the judge rejected it the trial proceeded so the

[00:36:36] the defense attorneys noted that each youth had limited intellectual ability and said that neither

[00:36:43] was capable of preparing the written statements or videotape confessions submitted by the

[00:36:48] prosecution as evidence they contended that the confessions had been coerced from

[00:36:54] youths vulnerable to pressure because of their age and their intellectual capacity so so basically

[00:37:01] their own defense is basically their their only suggestion is to like we're just going to say

[00:37:08] that they're fucking stupid and they don't you know they can't really submit to anything

[00:37:12] sort of thing yeah yeah which is bad that they felt that was their only option

[00:37:18] well they've been made to feel like that though so melee testified again at this trial again her

[00:37:23] name was not given in court this time one of the defense counsel wise his lawyer cross-examined

[00:37:28] her she later said in an interview on opera i'll tell you what i didn't feel wonderful about

[00:37:34] the boys defense attorneys especially the one who cross-examined me he was right in front

[00:37:38] of my face and in essence calling me a slut by asking questions like when was the last

[00:37:43] time you had sex with your boyfriend what the fuck is going on why is that relevant what is

[00:37:48] going on exactly why is his lawyer had also asked her whether she had ever been assaulted

[00:37:54] by men in her life suggesting that a man she knew may have attacked her and implied that her

[00:38:00] injuries were not as severe as severe as being presented yeah but they were right well yeah

[00:38:06] yeah of course the work cost where this this is just this is the thing with like

[00:38:12] as much as i like watching things like law and order and say science of like they

[00:38:16] i think people who are people who want to be defense lawyers and stuff like that

[00:38:20] something wrong with you yeah yeah yeah yeah as much as obviously these lads were innocent

[00:38:27] obviously it's not hurtful is it exactly but like i said they have defense lawyers

[00:38:31] yeah so they're going to do all the shitty tricks and everything that can come up with

[00:38:34] like i said by saying that you know they lack intelligence they've got no fucking

[00:38:39] intellectuals fucking ability or anything like that and everything that's all right them saying

[00:38:42] that but making her out to be like but the baddest thing though if they make her out to be

[00:38:46] some sort of fucking slut like the same yeah and you know it makes her look worse

[00:38:51] so it's one of them it's like that's why that's why i just think i don't know how

[00:38:55] these how them buggers sleep at night me no that's fucked exactly so richardson was the

[00:39:01] only one of the five defendants to be convicted of attempted murder bear in mind he was the

[00:39:05] youngest one remember yeah in addition to sodomy and assault of her which is just mental and

[00:39:13] robbery and riots in the attack on john mcglofflin another jogger in the park he was

[00:39:19] sentenced to 15 to 10 years in a juvenile facility facility corrie wise 16 years old at

[00:39:26] the time of the crime was acquitted of rape and attempted murder at trial melodie jackson the

[00:39:32] sister of one of wise's friends testified that while incarcerated in the righter's island

[00:39:37] he had told her that he had restrained and fondled the jogger wise was convicted of lesser

[00:39:43] charges of sexual abuse assault and riot in the attack on the female jogger and on lofflin

[00:39:49] because of his age and the violent nature of the felony charge he was tried and sentenced

[00:39:54] as an adult receiving five to 15 years in adult prison after the verdict wise shouted at the

[00:40:01] prosecutor you're going to pay for this jesus is going to get you you made this up that's

[00:40:06] that's not a that's not a long half was expecting a much harsher sentence on him yeah

[00:40:12] but you got to think he was acquitted of the rape and attempted murder and stuff as he

[00:40:15] was acquitted of the rape yeah yeah the acquitted of the rape and everything it was more

[00:40:19] like you say he was convicted on lesser charges of sexual abuse assault and obviously the riot

[00:40:24] stuff right okay jurors who agreed to interviews after the trials said that they were not convinced

[00:40:31] by the youth's confessions but were impressed by the physical evidence introduced by the

[00:40:36] prosecutors semen grass dirt and two hairs described as consistent with the victim's hair

[00:40:42] that were recovered from richardson's underpants according to an fbi expert who gave evidence at

[00:40:48] the trial all five defendants could be excluded as being the man who had left the semen samples

[00:40:53] inside melee and on the sock in total 14 men were tested including the defendants and male's

[00:40:59] former boyfriend and all were excluded the semen belonged to another unidentified male years

[00:41:05] later more advanced dna testing also revealed that the hairs in richardson's clothes did

[00:41:10] not match the victim fucking hell man exactly how many years after i'll just just say as many

[00:41:17] i can't remember exactly how many years but bollocks exactly so this is this is the point where

[00:41:22] they uh they realize they're fucked up and they're gonna go for the the actual well here we go

[00:41:29] yeah so this is our next bit this could be all about the incarceration so through their time

[00:41:34] of incarceration mccrae richardson salam santana and wise maintained their innocence in the

[00:41:40] rape and attack of melee including that hearings before parole boards while they

[00:41:45] acknowledged witnessing or participating in other wrongdoing in the park they each maintained

[00:41:50] innocence in the attack of nearly richardson salam and santana attended classes and earned

[00:41:58] a ged general educational development and also completed an associate degree while while they

[00:42:05] were inside basically wise had to serve all of his time in an adult prison and encountered

[00:42:12] so much personal violence that he asked to stay in isolation for extended periods

[00:42:18] he was held at four different prisons having asked for transfers in the hope of improving

[00:42:22] his situation he was released in august 2002 the last of the five men to leave prison santana

[00:42:30] was released in 1995 mccrae in 1996 and salam and richardson in 1997 and obviously

[00:42:38] corey wise was released in august 2002 so so they haven't actually found the genuine killer

[00:42:46] yet and they've already served the sentences so fuck me sideways who really did it so in 2001

[00:42:54] matteus rayars met wise when they were held at the auburn correctional facility in upstate

[00:42:59] new york rayars subsequently informed a corrections officer that he had raped melee

[00:43:05] who so this fellow who corey wise is met in prison in 2001 he's confessed to it fuck off

[00:43:13] wait for it in 2002 rayars told officials that on the night of the 19th of april 1989

[00:43:20] he had assaulted and raped the female jogger he was 17 years old at the time of the assault

[00:43:26] and said that he had committed it alone he also said that he had intended to burglarize

[00:43:30] the victim's apartment rayars was then working in an east harlem convenience store on third avenue

[00:43:37] and 102nd street and living in a van on the street rayars was believed to have raped another

[00:43:43] woman in the same area of the park during the day on april 17th two days before the attack on

[00:43:48] melee initially the melee case was investigated as a homicide and the april 17th rape was

[00:43:55] investigated as a rape assault which resulted in a lack of comparison of the dna recovered in

[00:44:01] the two cases the nypd did not have a dna database until 1994 after that detectives and

[00:44:09] prosecutors had access to common information about dna from evidence taken from suspects

[00:44:16] in certain crimes during the summer of 1989 rayars raped four women killing one

[00:44:21] and was interrupted after robbing a fifth he was sentenced to 33 years to life after he pleaded guilty

[00:44:28] to the top courts in each case district attorney robert morganfow i'm going to go with

[00:44:38] his office was notified of the confession in 2002 morganfow appointed a team led by

[00:44:44] district attorneys nancy ryan and peter casselaro to investigate the case based on

[00:44:52] rayars's confession and a review of evidence rayars provided officials with a detailed account

[00:44:57] of the attack details of which were corroborated by other evidence which the police held in

[00:45:03] addition his dna matched the dna evidence at the scene confirming that he was the sole source

[00:45:08] of the semen found in and on the victim to the factor of one in six million people

[00:45:17] rayars's dna matched the semen found on melee and he provided other confirmatory evidence

[00:45:25] conformatory no it's actually what's confirmatory but it just sounds weird yeah in

[00:45:31] announcing these facts morganfow also said that the perpetrator had tied up melee with

[00:45:36] a t-shirt in a distinctive fashion that rayars used again on later victims in crimes for which

[00:45:41] he was convicted based on interviews and other evidence the team believed that rayars had acted

[00:45:47] alone the rape appeared to have taken place in the northwoods area after the main body of the

[00:45:53] 30 teenagers had moved well to the south and the timeline reconstruction events made it

[00:45:59] unlikely that he was joined by any of the defendants in addition rayars was not known to

[00:46:04] have been associated with any of the five indicted defendants he lived at 102nd street in what

[00:46:11] low when what locals considered another neighborhood none of the five defendants in

[00:46:17] in the rape mentioned him by name because rayars's confession occurred after new york's

[00:46:25] then five-year statute of limitations has passed he was not charged with the offense

[00:46:31] rayars claimed that he came forward because it was the right thing to do

[00:46:37] fucking insane absolute fucking madness mate what so the case was never reopened

[00:46:44] well no it was left they got charged they got charged basically saved the time

[00:46:49] kory got like kory gets well he was let out a bit earlier than he should have been

[00:46:54] not that he should have been then you know that he was serving yeah but yeah like i said

[00:46:59] there was only a five-year statute of limitations on on it back then so like i

[00:47:03] said he couldn't be charged for it i mean he was already serving 33 years so i mean he wouldn't

[00:47:09] he was serving 33 years to life so i i mean unless they would have given the death penalty

[00:47:13] i don't think it really would have had much effect anyway i mean he was never getting out

[00:47:16] of prison this fucking madness ridiculous isn't it absolutely ridiculous it's to think that

[00:47:25] those kids all told the truth so i'll take it they never received any sort of because

[00:47:30] i know sometimes it happens doesn't it wouldn't yeah i'm not finished yet net yeah so they're

[00:47:36] vacated convictions so based on newly discovered evidence specifically an affidavit by rayars

[00:47:43] confessing to the crime and declaring that he acted alone wise mccrae santana and richardson

[00:47:48] filed motions to have their convictions set aside and for the court to grant whatever

[00:47:54] relief may be just and proper millions in 2022

[00:48:03] robert morgan foul district attorney of new york county conducted an investigation

[00:48:08] into potential innocence of wise mccrae santana richardson and salam 2022 yeah it took that

[00:48:15] long to 2002 sorry 2002 ignore that 2002 yeah that's my bad i can't read

[00:48:23] oh yeah so where was i sorry sorry man that's me but yeah so is it is a da basically that nancy

[00:48:31] ryan she filed an affirmation supporting motions by the defendants to vacate their convictions

[00:48:36] in december 2002 ryan's affirmation recommended vacating the convictions of all

[00:48:43] five the five defendants convictions were vacated by the new york supreme court justice charles

[00:48:50] j summitt i'm not going to attempt to say the name because i can't on the 19th of december 2002

[00:48:59] so this supreme court bloke yeah he is the order was vacated the convictions for all crimes

[00:49:08] which the defendants had been convicted all five of the defendants had been

[00:49:12] complete had completed their prison sentences at the time of the order their names were

[00:49:17] cleared in relation to this case with this also enabled them to be removed from the new

[00:49:23] york state sex offenders registry in addition to having difficulty getting employment or

[00:49:28] renting housing as registered offenders they had been required to report to authorities

[00:49:35] in person every three months the city government also withdrew all charges against the men

[00:49:41] and they received well wait a minute so raymond santana was released in 95 i've done all that

[00:49:47] haven't i yeah yeah yeah so basically like even though even though they'd saved the time

[00:49:53] obviously it was good that they were clean because i say they got absolutely sex offenders

[00:49:57] registry and all that yeah there's a whole whole thing to go through so getting close

[00:50:01] so a bit of aftermath so trisha melee released a book in 2003 called i am the central park

[00:50:07] jogger it was the first time that her name was made public and the book detailed how she

[00:50:12] recovered from the attack and her injuries she became a motivational speaker in 1998 and used

[00:50:19] her experience to help other victims she continued to jog on a regular basis and in

[00:50:24] 1995 completed a new york marathon what's a woman fair play what a woman yeah so the central park

[00:50:31] five are still very much affected by the wrongful conviction which is understandable and in 2014

[00:50:38] they received a settlement from the courts of 41 million dollars with corey wise receiving 12

[00:50:44] million of that yeah so corey said you can forgive you can forgive but you won't forget

[00:50:51] you won't forget what you lost no money can bring that time back i couldn't agree more i

[00:50:55] couldn't agree more um mainly because you've got to think right you think about it then

[00:51:00] they are literally probably the most important years in your life yeah 100 percent that is when

[00:51:05] you do i mean sorry how old was he when specifically the one that received 12 million

[00:51:10] corey how old was he at the time was he he was 16 he was 60 so he was charged as an

[00:51:14] adult wasn't he yeah so by 2014 this was 1989 correct yeah any good on maths there leon

[00:51:21] while we talk well we don't see no point asking reggie it's coming on 40 at least isn't he

[00:51:26] yeah yeah i'd serve how long do you serve though oh it was the full sentence basically

[00:51:33] what is like 15 years so oh fuck that yeah 12 millions nowhere near and it's not even a

[00:51:37] millionaire well exactly fuck off 25 years 25 years yeah 25 years so he was 41 41 right 12

[00:51:48] mil so raymond santana unfortunately found himself back in prison following drug related

[00:51:53] charges after having no luck in finding employment and feeling like a waste of space i was gonna say

[00:51:59] and the only way he felt he could earn money was to deal drugs yeah well the system made him

[00:52:04] it's sort of understandable yeah it's not understandable it's not doesn't make it right

[00:52:08] but it's no it doesn't make absolutely completely agree though it doesn't make it right but you've

[00:52:12] got to give him leeway i mean the things that you've been through it's true what are you

[00:52:15] supposed to do exactly that's fucking horrible story man yeah so where are the five today

[00:52:23] so kevin richardson has since earned a high school diploma and has married and become a

[00:52:27] father good on him anton mccrae currently lives in atalanta with his children vampire

[00:52:33] raymond can't say that

[00:52:37] raymond santana owns his own clothing company named park madison nyc he also has a daughter

[00:52:43] that's class because that's what he wanted to do yeah yousef salam has 10 children has become

[00:52:48] a motivational speaker and author good deal exactly didn't waste any time didn't didn't just

[00:52:54] die so corey wise he founded the corey wise innocence project which provides free legal

[00:52:59] services to those who state to be wrongly convicted good so fair play to them all absolutely

[00:53:06] so as with most of the episodes i do mate i'm going to end with like some

[00:53:12] what we're going to call it what what you call it adaptations so in 2019 netflix released

[00:53:17] a series named when they see us based on the case it received 11 awards from the uk and the

[00:53:23] and i've watched it and it is it's a tough watch yeah but if fucking watch it yeah watch

[00:53:30] it yeah it's it's it's good it's obviously it's it seems really weird to say this

[00:53:35] because but it's it's good to watch but because it's fucking horrible and you're like

[00:53:39] yeah you really put your in there shoes sort of thing yes yeah it's like it's not

[00:53:45] anything it's not enjoyable watch yeah i know what you mean i know what you mean but yeah so

[00:53:49] that's it mate the case of the central park jogger in the central park five what you make of that

[00:53:55] it's uh it's a eye opener apart from baffles no yeah it's it's an eye opener it's it's not

[00:54:00] so much baffled to be it sounds horrendous saying that but i've you know your hair story's

[00:54:05] not quite the same as that but similar stories always there's a similar one we can do the

[00:54:09] westman for free we can do that sometime well you think back to like i'm sure this is based

[00:54:15] on a true story in a sense green mile that was not based on a true story no it was definitely

[00:54:21] based on a true story there was a 14 year old boy no there was a 14 year old boy who was

[00:54:25] executed because he was convicted of a murder that he didn't do well that's happened many

[00:54:30] times and it no but that's what i'm agreeing mild is it is that's who he's based off that

[00:54:34] to the guy's based off that boy it's a stephen king novel yeah i know but it's been

[00:54:38] completely changed doesn't matter we've already been going on for over an hour here

[00:54:41] yeah so i told you that's fucking crazy isn't it horrific man yeah absolutely fucking horrendous

[00:54:49] 12 million shit yeah exactly right then so we'll leave it there guys so as always you know

[00:54:54] follow the socials instagram is the main one at let's underscore talk about pod you'll

[00:55:00] find obviously all the links on there just click the link in the bio on merchdolls

[00:55:03] page when it was out yeah and we'll see you next week certainly will see you live really take care guys