Judge Denies Trump’s Bid to Dismiss ‘Central Park Five’ Defamation Case

The judge dismissed the plaintiffs’ claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Korey Wise (3rd L), speaks on stage alongside Kevin Richardson (L), New York City Council Member Dr. Yusef Salaam (2nd L), and Raymond Santana (R), accompanied by Rev. Al Sharpton (2nd R), on the last day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 22, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

A federal judge on Thursday denied President Donald Trump’s bid to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by five black and Hispanic men, who became known as the “Central Park Five” after they were wrongly convicted for a 1989 rape case and later exonerated.

U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone ruled that the plaintiffs may proceed with their lawsuit, in which they accused Trump of making false and defamatory statements during his 2024 presidential debate with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate running against Trump. The judge, however, dismissed the plaintiffs’ claim that Trump had intentionally caused them emotional distress, according to the court order.

The five plaintiffs—Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown, and Korey Wise—were teenagers when they were convicted of the 1989 rape and assault of a woman named Trisha Meili while she was jogging in New York City’s Central Park. They spent years in prison before being exonerated in 2002 after the culprit confessed to the crime and DNA evidence confirmed his guilt.

The men filed the lawsuit against Trump in October 2024 following the 2024 presidential debate, during which Harris said that Trump had taken out full-page ads in New York newspapers calling for the return of the death penalty after the Central Park case.

In his response, as noted in the court document, Trump said: “They admitted—they said, they pled guilty. And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately. And if they pled guilty—then they pled we’re not guilty.”

Trump’s legal team had said that his remarks were merely statements of opinion and should be interpreted as a recollection of his reasoning at the time for placing the advertisement.

The judge stated that Trump’s statement—that the men pleaded guilty and they killed someone—“can be ‘objectively determined to be false,’” and therefore it “must be construed as one of fact, not opinion.”

The plaintiffs have argued in their lawsuit that Trump made false claims during the debate. They said that they have “never pled guilty to any crime” and that the victim of the Central Park assault was not killed.

The plaintiffs are seeking an unspecified amount in compensatory and punitive damages, according to their complaint.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Shanin Specter, said in a statement to The Epoch Times that they are gratified by the court’s ruling and “look forward to discovery, trial and the ultimate vindication of these five fine men.”

Trump’s lawyer, Karin Sweigart, said that they will “continue fighting to protect the First Amendment rights of not just the president, but all Americans.”

Sweigart described the lawsuit as an “unfounded and meritless attack” against Trump. She also said the judge’s decision to dismiss some of the plaintiffs’ claims represented a victory.

“It exemplifies the very kind of meritless legal action Pennsylvania’s anti-SLAPP law aims to prevent—shielding free speech from politically motivated abuse,” Sweigart said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.

The five men were exonerated after Matias Reyes, a convicted rapist, confessed to police in 2002 that he acted alone in attacking Meili in Central Park. New York City later paid the men $41 million in a settlement for their false arrest.