Forgotten sixth Central Park Five co-defendant Steven Lopez to be exonerated

A sixth man indicted within the notorious Central Park 5 rape case is predicted to have his conviction thrown out Monday — 20 years after the exoneration of his co-defendants.

Steven Lopez, who as an adolescent reached a cope with prosecutors to plead responsible to a lesser cost of robbing a male jogger, is due in courtroom Monday afternoon for a listening to to vacate his case, following an anticipated movement to dismiss from Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg.

Lopez, now 48, was arrested together with 5 different black and Latino teenagers within the horrific 1989 rape and beating of then-28-year-old white jogger Trisha Meili.

The assault, which left Meili in a coma for 12 days, shook town at a time of excessive crime and fears of city decay.

His co-defendants — who grew to become often called the Central Park 5 — have been finally convicted at trial and served six to 13 years in jail earlier than their exoneration in 2002.

Steven Lopez was arrested together with 5 different black and Latino teenagers within the horrific 1989 assault on jogger Trisha Meili.

Dan Brinzac/New York Put up Archives/NYP Holdings, Inc. through Getty Pictures

The convictions have been tossed after a nine-month evaluation of the case uncovered vital proof that was not offered to the jury through the preliminary trial, together with DNA that linked serial rapist Matias Reyes to the crime.

Reyes additionally confessed to the assault and mentioned he dedicated it alone, however the assertion got here after the statute of limitations expired.

As an adolescent, Steven Lopez reached a cope with Manhattan prosecutors to plead responsible to a lesser cost of robbing a male jogger.

Michael Schwartz

Kevin Richardson, Antron Mccray, Raymond Santana Jr., Korey Smart and Yusef Salaam, collectively often called the “Central Park 5.”

Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Steven Lopez has not obtained any settlements for his wrongful prosecution.

Dan Brinzac/New York Put up Archives/NYP Holdings, Inc. through Getty Pictures

The 5 sued town in 2003 for $250 million over their wrongful conviction and imprisonment.

Their lawsuit dragged on for greater than a decade as then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg opposed placing a cope with the boys, a stance later reversed by Mayor Invoice de Blasio. Metropolis Corridor paid $41 million to settle the go well with in 2014.

The case sparked the critically acclaimed Ken Burns documentary, “The Central Park 5” in 2012 and the 2019 Netflix dramatization “When They See Us.”

Lopez — who served about three years in jail earlier than being launched within the early Nineties — has not obtained any settlements for his wrongful prosecution. His case has largely been forgotten since he pleaded responsible to theft in 1991 to keep away from the rape cost.

With Put up wires