Members of the “Central Park Five” have sued former President Donald Trump on Monday over “false and defamatory” statements he allegedly made during a month-long presidential debate on her 1989 case.
The five men claim in a single 20-page federal lawsuit that Trump knew he was acting with a “reckless disregard” for the reality when he said throughout the September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris that they were pleading guilty to crimes related to the beating and rape of a girl in New York City and that the five teenagers “one person seriously injured, one person killed” within the attack.
“Defendant Trump’s statements were false and defamatory in many respects,” lawyers for the lads, now all of their 50s, wrote within the lawsuit filed in federal court in Philadelphia. “Plaintiffs have never pleaded guilty to the Central Park attacks. All plaintiffs pleaded not guilty and maintained their innocence throughout the trial and incarceration and after their release from prison.”
CNN has reached out to Trump representatives for comment.
The men are searching for compensatory and punitive damages. The lawsuit also alleges that Trump's comments portrayed them in a false light and caused them “severe emotional distress.”
In the case, the group was pressured to make false confessions. They were exonerated in 2002 when DNA evidence linked one other person to the crime. The teens sued town and the case was settled in 2014.
CNN's Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.
The CNN Wire
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