Co-defendant in Central Park jogger case is exonerated

Steven Lopez listens during a court hearing, Monday, July 25, 2022, in New York. Lopez, a co-defendant of the so-called Central Park Five, whose convictions in a notorious 1989 rape of a jogger were thrown out more than a decade later, had his conviction on a related charge overturned Monday. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool) Steven Lopez listens during a court hearing, Monday, July 25, 2022, in New York. Lopez, a co-defendant of the so-called Central Park Five, whose convictions in a notorious 1989 rape of a jogger were thrown out more than a decade later, had his conviction on a related charge overturned Monday. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)

By TOM HAYS / Associated Press July 26, 2022 3 min read

NEW YORK (AP) – A co-defendant of the so-called Central Park Five, whose convictions in a notorious 1989 rape of a jogger were thrown out more than a decade later, had his conviction on a related charge overturned Monday.

Steven Lopez was exonerated in response to requests by both Lopez’s attorney and prosecutors at a court hearing in Manhattan.

Lopez was 15 when he 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 that he and several others mugged a male jogger on the same night.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg told a judge Monday that a review of the case found that Lopez had pleaded guilty involuntarily “in the face of false statements” and under “immense external pressure.” He served more than three years behind bars before being released in the early 1990s.

Lopez, now 48, didn’t give a statement in court and left without speaking to reporters.