NEW YORK (AP) – With New York awash in murder and drugs, the 1989 rape and beating of a Central Park jogger by what was said to be a gang of “wilding” teens was seen as evidence of a city sliding into lawlessness. A quarter-century later, it stands instead as a $40 million symbol of failure by the justice system.
The city has agreed to a settlement for that amount with the five men who were falsely convicted in the attack, all but closing the books on one of the most lurid cases in New York history.
Official confirmation of the deal came Friday when City Comptroller Scott Stringer said his office had received settlement papers with a figure “in the ballpark” of the $40 million that had been widely reported in the media.
The settlement still needs final approval from the comptroller and a federal judge. Lawyers for the plaintiffs declined to comment.
The five black and Hispanic defendants were found guilty as teenagers in 1990 in the attack on a white woman – an investment banker – who had gone for a run in the park.