Linda Fairstein, a former prosecutor of the New York County District Attorney’s Office, is suddenly the victim of mob rule based upon a fictional show, “When They See Us.” It is a television series with added dramatic elements that turn the truth upside down about one of her most influential cases, the 1989 Central Park gang-rape and devastating beating of a young jogger.
The docudrama is based so loosely on the truth that it qualifies as folklore and has made Fairstein an exile after decades of building her impeccable reputation.
Fairstein was the head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office during the trials of the accused rapists in the case.
In one week, she was booted from a half-dozen corporate boards and dumped by her publisher and her talent agency. An award she earned was rescinded. It’s all because of a depiction of the events on the night of April 19, 1989, as to what might have been, not what actually took place.
The Netflix TV series by Ava DuVernay is destroying her without facts, just a fun version of accounts she cleverly invented. It perpetuates the 17-year-old myth that the Central Park 5 were innocent. It furthers the narrative of evil white racists and innocent blacks suffering at their hands.
The tale falsely claims Donald Trump called for the execution of the innocent black children accused of causing devastating injury to the jogger Trisha Melli. What he did do — laudably to many — is to call for the return of the death penalty and the police in two full-page ads. He never mentioned the CP5. Most in his social class would never take such a stand, and it took courage to do so at the time.
Ken Burns also created a tale claiming the CP5 were the victims of racism and income inequality, an absurd notion.
The evidence — the facts — against the five black and Latino boys convicted of the rape was overwhelming. It still is.
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ALONG CAME THE PSYCHOPATH
In 2002, the convictions of the five Central Park rapists were vacated on the word of a psychopath, Matias Reyes. He said he raped her and he acted alone. It isn’t possible that he acted alone, but it is possible he too raped her.
Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau incorrectly vacated the conviction of the Central Park Five because he was coming up for election and he was dying. This was just the eulogy he wanted. He recreated history.
Reyes’ “confession” didn’t affect a thing. The evidence was still the evidence. There were many rapists who attacked her as she lay helpless. It was always known that there was another rapist based on semen found on her body and clothes.
Reyes was not punished for his confession of guilt. Instead, he got a great prison gig. The statute of limitations had passed in the case.
Interestingly, he admitted his guilt after his jail stay with one of the convicted Central Park rapists, Kharey Wise, who was the leader of a prison gang.
The psychopath was never given a polygraph and police were not allowed to interview him. Police couldn’t even review the transcripts of the D.A.’s interviews with him and they were not allowed to interview his prison friends who said he told them he joined a rape already in progress after hearing the jogger’s screams.
PEOPLE LATER SCREAMED FOR PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
There wasn’t any physical evidence, DNA was brand new in 1989, and there often isn’t physical evidence, but the police can still solve the crimes without that. It’s not like today’s crime shows where you must have the DNA.
Four of the five — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, and Raymond Santana Jr. — spent about seven years in prison. The fifth man, Kharey Wise, served about 13 years. They were young at the time of the crimes, ages 14 to 16 years.
THEY WERE ‘WILDING’
On the night of April 19, 1989, when Trisha Melli nearly died, large numbers of black and Hispanic teenagers were “wilding” through Central Park. The CP5 were in the mob beating and mugging people in the park. The CP5 were arrested for the attack on Mellie and at least five other men and another woman. One of the men lost consciousness and another sustained permanent, life-changing injuries. One man was so covered in blood, it looked like his head was dunked in a bucket of blood.
THE EVIDENCE
Trisha Melli is now called the “white woman,” and the boys who so viciously attacked innocent park-goers are now called the victims of their crimes. They now claim their confessions were forced by the police. Michael Armstrong, who served on a panel re-investigating the Central Park jogger case, wrote in the Wall Street Journal that there is no evidence that any of the confessions were coerced.
Jack Kerwick pointed out in a 2014 column at Townhall that they had given statements that basically admitted they attacked Meili:
Antron McCray: “We charged her. We got her on the ground. Everybody started hitting her and stuff. She was on the ground. Everybody stompin’ and everything. Then we got, each—I grabbed one arm, some other kid grabbed one arm, and we grabbed her legs and stuff. Then we all took turns getting on her, getting on top of her.”
Kevin Richardson: “Raymond [Santana] had her arms, and Steve [Lopez] had her legs. He spread it out. And Antron [McCray] got on top, took her panties off.”
Raymond Santana: “He was smackin’ her, he was sayin’, ‘Shut up, bitch!’ Just smackin’ her…I was grabbin’ the lady’s tits.”
Kharey Wise: “This was my first rape.”
Kerwick pointed out that there was other evidence implicating the Central Park Five:
Multiple videotaped confessions of “the Five”; the presence of semen, blood, and hair on all of the suspects; a scratch on Kevin Richardson’s neck that, in the company of his father, he admitted he received by Meili; and several witness accounts confirmed for the police that the vermin who Ken Burns would years later make into martyrs were as guilty as sin itself of initiating and facilitating an attack against Trisha Meili that nearly cost the poor woman her life.
The CP5 were NEVER EXONERATED. The decision was simply — they served their sentences. They also walked away with a 41 million dollar settlement in 2014.
Fairstein is now the guilty party for doing her job in 1989, and Trisha Melli received nothing but life-altering injuries.
The mob has won.
