Calling it “the heist of the century,” Donald Trump sharply criticized the city for agreeing to a $40 million settlement with the five men wrongfully convicted in the notorious Central Park jogger assault of the 1980s, according to the Daily News.
“The recipients must be laughing out loud at the stupidity of the city,” Donald Trump, who is worth about $4 billion, wrote in an exclusive piece for the News. “Speak to the detectives on the case and try listening to the facts. These young men do not exactly have the pasts of angels.”
He also described it as “the heist of the century,” expressing no remorse for fueling racial tensions against the five black and Latino teens after the sensationalized 1989 attack, taking out full-page ads demanding the death penalty after their arrests.
But in December 2002, Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney at the time, found DNA and other evidence that suggested that it was not the five men who raped and beat the jogger, but convicted rapist and murderer Matias Reyes, who acted alone, according to the New York Times.
The city is reportedly set to pay the men $1 million, presumably to include legal costs, for each year they spent in prison, the New York Times reports. This amount suggests that Kharey Wise, who spent 13 years behind bars, may receive more than anyone else in the wrongful conviction case.
The other men, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana Jr. each spent seven years in prison, the Times says.
Read more at the Daily News.