The Central Park Five Book Has Arrived

May 26, 2011 - PRLog -- Sarah Burns, daughter of filmmaker Ken Burns is the author of the long awaited new book that reveals the real story of the tragic miscarriage of justice concerning the notorious Central Park Five Case.

The book “The Central Park Five a Chronicle of a City Wilding” debuted was Tuesday May 16th and is expected to become a quick best seller due to the important details it contains that the media and the press seemed reluctant to share with the public.

ON April 19th 1989 a twenty two year old white female was jogging in Central Park when she was attacked and sexually assaulted. The police went on an aggressive round up and a number of teenagers from the area were taken into custody for questioning.  Six young men were arrested and charged with assaulting and raping of the jogger that night. The NYPD were said to have manipulated some of the boys as young as fourteen into admit to the assault on videotape. The six young men were charged.

Following two trials five of the young men were found guilty. The sixth young man, Steven Lopez was permitted to plead to a lesser charge of assaulting people in the park and was not tried in the Jogger attack. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Monganthau’s office decided not to follow through with a third trial out of consideration for the victim.

The five young men, Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam , Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana all went to prison.  In spite of the fact that there was no DNA match linking the young men to the crime the police working on the case were said to have lied to some of the young men to get them to confess.

Thirteen years later, a man named Matias Reyes, already serving time for other sex offences confessed that he attacked the jogger on his own without any accomplices. The DNA that was found on the victim was his and confirmed his confession.  The Manhattan District Attorney overturned the case against the five young men and the Attorneys representing them filed a civil suit against the City, the District Attorney’s office and the NYPD.

Unfortunately, a black female federal Judge sat on the case for years and the City refuses to settle with the five victim of injustice.

While no one denies the joggers right to justice in seeing her perpetrator punished, anyone with half a brain and an ounce of conscious can both smell and see the rodents of
Heartless indifference towards justice for these young men working to kill any chance they have of getting their names cleared and obtaining retribution for their unjust punishment.

Years ago If you had relied on Andy Geller, Dareh Gregorian of the Post or Barbara Ross, Robert Ingrassia and Tracy Connor of the Daily News (just to name a few); to get your perspective on this case, you know doubt are convinced that those young men are still guilty of rapping that jogger. But if you were conscious enough to get the details left out by tuning in to WRKS Kiss FM’s Open line and Week in Review on Sundays at 10AM and 11PM respectively, and Tom Joyner morning show.  Or if you were fortunate to catch ABCNEWS Primetime September 26, 2002, or read the daily Challenge or Amsterdam News; you just might have a much better grasp on just what is going on in this case.

Judging the case by most of what the main stream press and media emphasized you would believe:
1. Matias Reyes’ confession was not completely reliable.
2. The five boys that were convicted were either with Reyes, rapped the Jogger after Reyes or before Reyes got to her.
3. That there was sufficient evidence to convict the five.
4. That the boys confessed of their own free wills without any kind of coercion.
5. That the parent or guardians of the boys were present through all of the interrogations.
6. That all of the interrogators and investigators were above reproach and incapable of any underhanded activity to get the convictions.
7. That there was no good reason for detectives to suspect Matias Reyes was involved in the investment banker’s rape even after he was arrested for rape.
8. That the confessions that the five boys made on tape were wholly consistent
with the evidence at the crime scene.
9. And that everyone involved with getting the convictions was and are only concerned with getting to the truth.

A statement by Celeste Koeleveld, Executive Assistant Corporation Counsel for Public Safety, NYC Law Department on the Central Park Jogger Case reveals the continued hard line and indifference against the suffered fate of the now grown men.

"The City stands by the decisions made by the detectives and prosecutors in bringing this case.  The 'Central Park Jogger' was not the only victim that night; others were also brutally attacked, beaten and robbed.  The charges against the plaintiffs and other youths were based on abundant probable cause,”

"Nothing unearthed since the trials, including Matias Reyes’s connection to the attack on the jogger -- changes that fact.  Indeed, it was well known at the time of the trials that an unidentified male’s DNA was present.  Under the circumstances, the City is preceding with a vigorous defense of the detectives and prosecutors, and the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars that each of the five plaintiffs and their family members are seeking."

The major media still seems to be reluctant to allow the important facts of the story to be told in their outlets and the Black press and black media lead by Kiss FM’s Open Line and Week in Review who were the first to sound the alarm about the miscarriage of justice concerning the five youth, have been the 411 line to our community on the story.

The contribution of Sarah Burns in her recently released book will be invaluable to our community as it brings the details out that the mass media refused to report.

Sarah Burns is also planning to make a documentary film of the case in the near future.