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yusef salaam
Central Park 5 Sue Trump for Defamatory Debate Comments
The suit states that the incident "was part of a continuing pattern of extreme and outrageous conduct toward plaintiffs stretching back decades."
Oct 21, 2024
Men wrongfully convicted of assaulting Central Park joggers in 1989 sued former U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday for recent remarks he made during a debate as the Republican nominee for the November election.
While debating Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia last month, Trump "made several statements concerning the 'Central Park Five'... now also known as the Exonerated Five," states the defamation lawsuit.
The men—Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown, and Korey Wise—were ages 14 to 16 at the time of the case. After all serving time behind bars, they were finally exonerated in 2002.
During the only Trump-Harris debate of this cycle, the Democrat cited various examples of Trump's troubling history of racism. She said: "Let's remember, this is the same individual who took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of five young Black and Latino boys who were innocent, the Central Park Five. Took out a full-page ad calling for their execution."
Trump said in September that "a lot of people... agreed with me on the Central Park Five," adding: "They admitted—they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately. And if they pled guilty—then they pled, we're not guilty."
The new suit says that "these statements are demonstrably false. Plaintiffs never pled guilty to any crime and were subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing. Further, the victims of the Central Park assaults were not killed."
"While in police custody, plaintiffs were each separately subjected to hours of coercive interrogation, under duress, with no attorney present and often without a parent or guardian present," the filing explains. "Plaintiffs all initially denied having any knowledge of the Central Park assaults. However, after hours of interrogation, four of the Plaintiffs agreed to provide written and videotaped statements in which they falsely admitted to having been present during the assaults."
Salaam, a Democrat on the New York City Council, "attended the September 10 debate in person and was in the room when defendant Trump made his false and defamatory statements," the suit notes. In the post-debate "spin room," Salaam tried to "politely dialogue" with the ex-president, who "refused to engage."
The document emphasizes that "defendant Trump's conduct at the September 10 debate was part of a continuing pattern of extreme and outrageous conduct toward plaintiffs stretching back decades."
As CNN reported Monday:
Trump has continued to be critical of the case as he's moved into politics in recent years. In October 2016, then-candidate Trump stood by his actions during the time of the case, telling CNN, "They admitted they were guilty."
And in 2014, Trump wrote in an op-ed in the New York Daily News that New York City's $41 million settlement with the five men was "a disgrace."
According to the suit, filed in federal court in Pennsylvania, the men are asking for "compensatory and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial, along with pre- and post-judgment interest, costs, and such other relief as the court deems just and proper."
Trump was previously found to have defamed journalist E. Jean Carroll regarding rape allegations she made against him and convicted of 34 felony charges related to hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 presidential election. The former president also faces ongoing state and federal cases for his attempt to overturn his 2020 loss.
The men—Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown, and Korey Wise—were ages 14 to 16 at the time of the case. After all serving time behind bars, they were finally exonerated in 2002.
During the only Trump-Harris debate of this cycle, the Democrat cited various examples of Trump's troubling history of racism. She said: "Let's remember, this is the same individual who took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of five young Black and Latino boys who were innocent, the Central Park Five. Took out a full-page ad calling for their execution."
Trump said in September that "a lot of people... agreed with me on the Central Park Five," adding: "They admitted—they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately. And if they pled guilty—then they pled, we're not guilty."
The new suit says that "these statements are demonstrably false. Plaintiffs never pled guilty to any crime and were subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing. Further, the victims of the Central Park assaults were not killed."
"While in police custody, plaintiffs were each separately subjected to hours of coercive interrogation, under duress, with no attorney present and often without a parent or guardian present," the filing explains. "Plaintiffs all initially denied having any knowledge of the Central Park assaults. However, after hours of interrogation, four of the Plaintiffs agreed to provide written and videotaped statements in which they falsely admitted to having been present during the assaults."
Salaam, a Democrat on the New York City Council, "attended the September 10 debate in person and was in the room when defendant Trump made his false and defamatory statements," the suit notes. In the post-debate "spin room," Salaam tried to "politely dialogue" with the ex-president, who "refused to engage."
The document emphasizes that "defendant Trump's conduct at the September 10 debate was part of a continuing pattern of extreme and outrageous conduct toward plaintiffs stretching back decades."
As CNN reported Monday:
Trump has continued to be critical of the case as he's moved into politics in recent years. In October 2016, then-candidate Trump stood by his actions during the time of the case, telling CNN, "They admitted they were guilty."
And in 2014, Trump wrote in an op-ed in the New York Daily News that New York City's $41 million settlement with the five men was "a disgrace."
According to the suit, filed in federal court in Pennsylvania, the men are asking for "compensatory and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial, along with pre- and post-judgment interest, costs, and such other relief as the court deems just and proper."
Trump was previously found to have defamed journalist E. Jean Carroll regarding rape allegations she made against him and convicted of 34 felony charges related to hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 presidential election. The former president also faces ongoing state and federal cases for his attempt to overturn his 2020 loss.
'The Sweetest Victory': Exonerated 'Central Park 5' Member Wins New York City Council Seat
"Together, we will rewrite the next chapter of our story ensuring that no one is left behind," said Yusef Salaam.
Nov 08, 2023
More than three decades after Yusef Salaam and four other Black and Latino men were wrongfully convicted of brutally assaulting a woman in New York City's Central Park, Salaam will be joining the council of the largest city in the United States following his victory in Tuesday's election.
Salaam ran unopposed after winning his Democratic primary election in District 9 in June with more than 50% of the vote, his closest competitor trailing him by 25 points.
His progressive policy platform centered housing justice including eviction prevention; economic justice; "equitable public safety measures," including investments in community programs and alternatives to incarceration; and environmental justice.
Two decades after he and the rest of the "Central Park 5" were exonerated by DNA evidence, Salaam said before the election that his opportunity to join the New York City Council, representing parts of Harlem, "means that we can really become our ancestors' wildest dreams."
Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, called Salaam's ascension to the city council "the sweetest victory" for those who grew up in New York City when the public was wrongly led to believe that the then-15-year-old was guilty of rape and saw him sent to prison for seven years.
"It says so much about the indestructible human spirit and this righteous Black man," said Nelson.
Since his exoneration, Salaam has been a poet, public speaker, and activist, calling for "criminal justice reform, prison reform and the abolition of juvenile solitary confinement and capital punishment." He serves on the board of the Innocence Project and is a founder of Justice 4 the Wrongfully Incarcerated.
"Working-class voters, voters of color, and those who are disenchanted with the political process are central to our campaign," he wrote on his campaign website. "As a victim of a broken criminal justice system, I understand the challenges faced by those who are marginalized and neglected by the powers that be."
Former Republican President Donald Trump—whose daughter testified Wednesday in his civil fraud trial in Manhattan, one of several criminal and civil cases against him that are now proceeding in court—called for capital punishment for Salaam and the rest of the Central Park 5 in the 1990s, and refused to apologize for doing so nearly twenty years after their exoneration.
"Together, we will rewrite the next chapter of our story ensuring that no one is left behind," said Salaam at his victory party Tuesday evening. "We will rebuild our community with the principles of fairness, healing, and progress of the forefront of our efforts."
'Incredible': Central Park Five Exoneree Yusef Salaam Declares Victory in NYC Council Primary
"I was 15 years old when I was run over by the spiked wheels of justice. And here I am now taking that same platform and turning it into a purpose, trying to take my pain and doing something about it."
Jun 28, 2023
Yusef Salaam—one of the Central Park Five teenagers who spent years behind bars before being exonerated for a rape they did not commit—declared victory Tuesday night in his Democratic primary race for a New York City Council seat representing Harlem and other parts of Upper Manhattan.
Although the outcome of Tuesday's contest may not be officially finalized for days due to New York City voting rules, with more than 99% of votes counted, Salaam leads state Assemblymember Inez Dickens, his closest competitor in a crowded contest for the 9th Council District seat, by more than 2,700 ballots, according to the city's Board of Elections.
The 49-year-old poet, activist, inspirational speaker, and father of 10 children is all but guaranteed to win November's general election in the overwhelmingly Democratic district.
"Started from the bottom, now I'm here," Salaam—who ran on a progressive platform—told supporters during his victory speech.
"This campaign has been about those who have been counted out. This campaign has been about those who have been forgotten," Salaam continued. "This campaign has been about our Harlem community, who has been pushed into the margins of life and made to believe that they were supposed to be there."
"What has happened, in this campaign, has restored my faith in knowing that I was born for this," he added. "I am here because, Harlem, you believed in me."
Supporters hailed Salaam's unlikely rise to the halls of power, with fellow Central Park Five exoneree Raymond Santana tweeting, "From hated to most loved."
Sherrilyn Ifill, former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, called Salaam's apparent victory "a gift NYC doesn't deserve" that "can never balance what this city did to him."
Filmmaker Ken Burns, who along with his daughter Sarah Burns and her husband David McMahon made the 2012 documentary feature The Central Park Five, said he's "hopeful that young people everywhere will appreciate the poetry and justice in this victory."
Bernice King, CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, tweeted one of her father's best-known quotes, "The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."
Questioned about his lack of political experience earlier Tuesday outside a polling place, Salaam said that he believes being a political novice is "a great thing."
"I was 15 years old when I was run over by the spiked wheels of justice," Salaam told reporters. "And here I am now taking that same platform and turning it into a purpose, trying to take my pain and doing something about it."
In April 1989 Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Santana, and Salaam were arrested following the beating and rape of a woman jogging in Central Park. The five Black and Latino teens were beaten, deprived of food, drink, and sleep, and otherwise coerced by New York City Police Department officers into falsely confessing to the rape. They were tried, convicted, and spent years behind bars for a crime they did not commit.
Salaam, who was 15 years old when his life was turned upside down, was imprisoned for six years and eight months before his exoneration.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump, then just a New York businessman, spent $85,000—more than $200,000 today—on full-page ads in the city's four major newspapers calling for the restoration of capital punishment so that the Central Park Five could be executed.
Salaam reacted to Trump's March indictment on 34 felony counts in connection with alleged hush money payments to women who say the former president had sex with them by buying a full-page New York Times ad of his own.
"Now that you have been indicted and are facing criminal charges, I do not resort to hatred, bias, or racism—as you once did," Salaam's ad said. "Even though 34 years ago you effectively called for my death and the death of four other innocent children, I wish you no harm."
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