Over the last several weeks, in the aftermath of the Netflix series, When They See Us, that promotes the conspiracy theory that the NYPD framed the Central Park Five for the infamous attack on jogger Trisha Meili, the dominant media have ignored the substantial evidence that the Five were, in fact, guilty of assaulting Ms. Meili, in addition to attacking several other victims that same night in the park.
Not only have several of the members admitted to some of their actions in various settings over the years, but recently released video recordings of their 1989 confessions show that several members of the group -- especially Kevin Richardson -- were able to divulge details about Meili's appearance that demonstrates they must have encountered her before she was attacked.
It can be seen 21 minutes into his confession that Richardson gave a mostly accurate and surprisingly detailed description as he recalled seeing a female jogger approaching. He noted that "she was short -- she had short hair, gray shorts, black biking pants."
When asked about her shirt, he stated that she was wearing a "white tank top." The main discrepancy was that shorts were not recovered by police, although it is not impossible that they could have been stolen. Meili was also wearing a white long-sleeved shirt that was totally soaked red with blood when it was recovered by police.
Ms. Meili is reported to be "petite," about five feet tall, and, according to sketches from the 1990 trials, she apparently had short hair when she was taken to the hospital with her injuries, so his description sounds mostly consistent with what her appearance that night would have been.
It should be noted that Matias Reyes -- the serial rapist widely believed by liberals to be the only person who attacked Meili -- struggled to give details of her appearance, and even claimed on at least two occasions that she was at least 5 ft 8 inches tall as he declared in 2002 that he was the lone attacker. His difficulty in recalling details about her appearance is probably because he did not see her until after she had already been tackled to the ground by members of the Five before he made his more violent attack later.
The other four Central Park Five members who made some form of confession all claimed that Richardson had tried to have sex with the victim. He was picked up by police that night as he tried to leave the park, and investigators found semen in his underwear, which would be consistent with such sexual activity and would explain why he failed to leave attainable DNA evidence behind.
In his confession video, Richardson denied that he had tried to have sex with her as he focused on implicating others.
And Antron McCray similarly recalled (12 minutes in) that Meili was wearing a white shirt, and also alleged that she was wearing shorts, although he described them as "blue." Given the similarity with Richardson's description, this may provide reason to believe the victim was wearing shorts before the attack.
In his videotaped confession, McCray admitted to taking part in the assault and recalled that he simulated sex with her. In videotaped confessions, Richardson also claimed that McCray had sex with Meili while Raymond Santana and Korey Wise claimed that McCray helped hold her down.
The ABC special on the Central Park Five notably played an edited clip of McCray that made it sound like he had given a totally inaccurate desciption of Meili and cut out the part when he correctly recalled that she was wearing a white shirt.
It may also be noteworthy that McCray recalled that, when they first saw her, they thought she was a man, which may be interpreted as consistent with Richardson stating that she had short hair.
In Wise's recorded confession, he recalled that the victim was wearing tight pants, which is only a vague description but is still consistent with what she was known to be wearing. Wise claimed in his confession that he only held down her leg, although he recanted later.
But, during his trial, a friend of Wise named Melody Jackson testified that he told her a similar story admitting to take part in the attack -- a claim that she repeated in 2002 when the case was reinvestigated. Two other friends of his also reportedly claimed that he admitted to involvement.
Santana denied trying to have sex with her or restraining her, but Richardson and Wise accused him of being actively involved in the attack on both counts.
Salaam only gave a verbal confession which he refused to sign or record in which he admitted to hitting Meili with a pipe. McCray recalled someone matching Salaam's description who hit her with a pipe.
Regarding the metal pipe that was used as a weapon, Salaam admitted under oath in his trial that he brought it to the park with him, but denied using it as a weapon and claimed that he lost it. Salaam and McCray reportedly both used the pipe to attack another jogger named John Loughlin, who was severely beaten. McCray even admitted to doing so in his confession.
Santana was also implicated in attacking Loughlin and reportedly hit the victim so hard with a wooden stick that it broke.
The Armstrong report that did a review of the case in 2002 made a list of some of the major attacks from park goers from that night, and listed how many people implicated each of the Central Park Five members in each attack, after investigators spoke with dozens of teens who were witnesses or took part. The report also recalled that McCray and Santana admitted to a parole board in 1994 that they committed some of these other crimes, and, in 2002, Richardson and Santana admitted to some of the attacks during the re-investigation, although not the attack on Meili.
The dominant media have almost totally ignored the mountain of evidence that the five teens committed serious crimes that night, and have pushed the narrative that Reyes's confession and DNA testing linking him to the crime somehow prove that others could not have attacked her as well, portraying them as totally "innocent," and repeating the discredited myth that President Donald Trump advocated giving them the death penalty.
CNN host Chris Cuomo has been so biased on the subject that, at one point, he helped liberal contributor Van Jones shut down conservative contributor Steve Cortes when he tried to argue that the Central Park Five are not as innocent as they have been made out to be.