Judge Denies Trump’s Bid to Dismiss ‘Central Park Five’ Defamation Case

The judge dismissed plaintiff’s claims that had the intentional effect of emotional distress.

A federal judge on Thursday denied President Donald Trump’s bid to dismiss a honour-loss lawsuit brought by five black and Hispanic men who became known as the “Central Park Five” after being falsely convicted and later exonerated in a 1989 rape case.

US District Judge Wendy Beetlestone ruled that plaintiffs could proceed with their case. There, he accused Trump of making a statement of falsehood and honour and loss during his 2024 presidential debate with then-President Wies Kamala Harris. However, the judge dismissed the plaintiff’s claim that Trump intentionally caused emotional distress, according to court orders.

The so-called Central Park Five – Yousef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Collie Wise were teenagers when they were convicted of rape and attacks by a woman named Trishameli in 1989 while jogging in Central Park in New York City. They spent years in prison before being exonerated in 2002 after the crime confessed his crime and DNA evidence confirmed his guilt.

After the 2024 presidential debate, he filed a lawsuit against Trump in October 2024, during which Harris said Trump had retrieved a full page ad in a New York newspaper.

As stated in court documents, Trump said: “They admitted. They pleaded guilty, and if they committed a crime, they ultimately killed a person and ultimately killed a person.

Trump’s legal team had said that his statements were merely statements of opinion and should be interpreted as a recollection of his reasoning to place advertisements.

The judge said that Trump’s statement pleaded guilty and killed someone – sometimes “can be deemed objectively false,” and therefore “must be interpreted as one fact, not an opinion.”

The plaintiffs alleged in the lawsuit that Trump made false claims during the debate. They said they “have never committed a crime” and that the victims of the Central Park attack were not killed.

According to their complaints, the plaintiffs are seeking unspecified amounts of compensatory and punitive damages.

The Epoch Times contacted lawyers for comments from both plaintiffs and Trump, but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

The five men were exonerated after convicted rapist Mattias Reyes confessed to police in 2002 that he attacked Meri in Central Park and acted alone. New York City later paid $41 million in a settlement for a false arrest.