“It is all overwhelming and bitter sweet,” Yusef Salaam told the Amsterdam News.
The men known as the Central Park Five will now get their $41million from the city for their wrongful convictions. Mayor Michael Bloomberg seemed determined that the boys-to-men, wrongfully convicted and then exonerated, would get no compensation under his watch.
Friday, Sept. 5, 2014, Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis decided to bring some closure to the men’s 25-year ordeal. He approved the $41 million settlement of the claim brought against the city in 2003 for the wrongful convictions in the outrageous “Central Park Jogger” case that rocked New York in 1989 that resulted in a nationwide call for compensation.
Of this ultimate justice-delayed case, Salaam said, “As you can imagine, we are all still trying to process what I call a sort of victory. I’m glad the battle is over, but I know the damage done isn’t covered by the amount we were awarded. No amount can replace the loss of freedom, justice and equality. I am concerned about the future of our community because we are far too often the ones at the end of the stake, roasted over the coals to satisfy the sadistic nature of the sick presence of institutionalized racism. I am afraid for the future of our community because if we are always seen as the culprit, the real criminals prevail.”
Plaintiffs Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson and Antron McCray were each awarded $7.125 million. Kharey Wise was awarded $12.25 million. Wise served 13 years in prison. Salaam, Santana, Richardson, and McCray each served approximately 7 years. The settlement was reached in June and was awaiting the judge’s signature.
The lawyers for the five men, Michael Tarif Warren, Roger Wareham and Jonathan Moore, all maintained that although the settlement is a significant amount of money, “no amount of money can make up for the pain and suffering these men and their families have had to endure over the past 25 years.”
In a racially toxic atmosphere—Donald Trump took out full page ads in the New York press calling for the death penalty—the five then teenagers were convicted in 1990 of rape in the “Central Park Jogger” case; where Trisha Meili was raped and beaten.
In 2002, while in prison, Wise happened to bump into convicted rapist Matias Reyes, who confessed to the crime. That encounter had a snowball effect. An investigation ensued. Reyes’ DNA matched evidence from the victim. There were court dates and more protests. And despite the corroborating evidence supporting Reyes claim, Bloomberg and then police commissioner Ray Kelly insisted that the five wrongfully convicted young men must have been involved in some way. Then, Manhattan District Attoney Robert M. Morgenthau recommended that a judge vacate the convictions.
As the vociferous supporters of the Central Park Five continued their demands for justice, mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio stated that if elected, he would settle the case.
Friday, Sept. 5, de Blasio said in a statement, “This settlement is an act of justice for those five men that is long overdue. We can finally put this case behind us, and these five men and their families can begin to heal these wounds and move forward.”
“I am relieved that this aspect of the journey at least has come to an end, this aspect at least, since they have been in limbo for the last 25 years since they were convicted, and 12 years since they were released,” Attorney Michael Tarif Warren told the AmNews. However, he added, “But these are men who suffered terribly by being wrongfully accused and convicted, and subsequently having their youth snatched from them. The Central Park case took just about 25 years for resolution, and again, it was the persistence of the community’s resolve to see this injustice righted, that brings us to this point. While no amount of money could ever repay them from the gross injustice they endured, we are thankful that they are in a place where they can move forward, and we are forever grateful to the people who stayed in the streets and made those responsible reverse some of the ills they committed.”
Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter said, “To the extent that the evidence suggests that these five young men were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to substantial prison terms for a crime they did not commit, that in and of itself constitutes an injustice in need of redress.”
As there are still rumblings of a need for an investigation into how police and prosecutors handled the case, Carter is determined that the settlement by the city not be construed as an admission that it came because the convictions “were the result of law enforcement misconduct.”
While defending both the investigating detectives and the assistant district attorneys involved in the case, Carter said that the issue would have to be determined “by a jury at trial, absent a settlement of this litigation. We have determined that a resolution of this matter is in the best interests of the city.”
“On the contrary,” Warren, who has been an attorney on the case for a decade, told the AmNews, “Even though the corporation counsel is implying that with investigators and prosecutors such as Elizabeth Lederer and Linda Fairstein, there was no malfeasance, the fact that this $41 million is the highest settlement that the city has ever engaged in for wrongful conviction completely refutes his assertions.”
As if speaking about current affairs in the city today in a ripped-from-the-headlines sentiment, Salaam said, “And if the policing of the past is the policing of the future, then I am very afraid. Even though this is a victory of sorts, there was nothing allocated to address the pain and suffering our families went through. The agony of a parent who had to raise their child(ren) amid the ‘Crime of the Century.’ That crime being the criminal act against America’s most valued citizens—its children. Some of us lost fathers and mothers.
“My own mother developed stage 4 cancer as a result of being dragged through the mud, and for what? She still fights to be free. Again, there was nothing allocated to right this wrong. Our families will not receive a dime from the city, but we will do right by them. All Praises Due that we can now breath a little easier. I still have my combat boots at the side of my bunk. It is over, but the collective struggle continues.”
State assembly candidate Charles Barron, a long-time supporter of the Central Park Five, said, “We, of course, celebrate the fact that these brothers have received the settlement, even though it does not adequately compensate them for their suffering. But, there are prosecutors and investigators who made their names off of this case, and they were culpable in railroading these young men. Their innocence was known in the very beginning. Those confessions were coerced. Nothing linked them to the attack. The NYPD and prosecutors knew this at the very start of this case. They must be held accountable. So while we are glad that these young men and their families can now move forward with their lives—congratulations on your wedding Raymond Santana—we are also equally glad to continue to fight the system protecting those responsible, who ultimately must answer for what they did.”