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Jun 03, 2019 · Elizabeth Lederer was the lead attorney on the prosecution team working on the Central Park jogger case in 1989; she worked to prosecute and then convict the Central Park Five, whose wrongful...
Jun 03, 2019 · The Central Park Five case has been mostly seen through the eyes of the wrongly convicted, but it took the operatives of the criminal justice …
Jun 07, 2019 · The Central Park Five: 5 attorneys explain why the prosecution’s disgraceful case should be reviewed The five boys who were convicted and ultimately exonerated of a brutal rape in 1989 are free,...
Jun 13, 2019 · In 1989, Lederer prosecuted Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise — known as the Central Park Five — in the assault and rape of a white female investment...
Fairstein was the top Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor in 1989 when the five teenagers were charged with a vicious attack on a jogger in Central Park. The convictions were overturned in 2002 after convicted murderer and serial rapist Matias Reyes confessed to committing the crime alone.Mar 19, 2020
All five were found guilty, but their convictions were vacated after an imprisoned rapist and murderer confessed to the crime. After the series debuted, Fairstein was dropped by her publishers in the U.S. and Britain, as well as her literary and film agency, ICM Partners.Mar 18, 2020
After the show was released Linda Fairstein, a best-selling crime novelist, was dropped by her publisher and agent, and the lawsuit claims she's also had speaking appearances cancelled, as well as losing a "significant number" of legal consulting jobs.Mar 19, 2020
After she left the DA's office in 2002, Fairstein began to publish mystery novels featuring Manhattan prosecutor Alexandra Cooper. Several have been bestsellers. In June 2019, after the release of the Netflix series When They See Us about the Central Park Five, Fairstein's publisher, Dutton, dropped her.
New York City settled with the Central Park Five in 2014 for $41 million. At the time, the city brewed with tension as parts of the city were being ravaged by crime and drugs, specifically crack, while Wall Street boomed with wealth.May 23, 2019
Santana, Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, and Yusef Salaam each spent a range of five to 11 years in prison for a crime they did not commit.Oct 21, 2020
Fairstein as in charge of the investigation and prosecution of the case against The Five, including the development of the prosecution's theory of the case,” said Andrew Miltenberg, a lawyer for Ms. Fairstein. “In truth, and as detailed in the lawsuit, Ms. Fairstein was responsible for neither aspect of the case.”Mar 18, 2020
According to her bio at the school, she is still an active prosecutor in the New York County District Attorney's Office. Her biography reads: “As senior trial counsel in the forensic and cold case unit, Lederer reviews and re-investigates unsolved murder and rape cases.”Jul 17, 2019
Spotlight: Linda Fairstein is Canceled.Jun 14, 2019
The "Central Park Jogger," as she would become known, had been brutally beaten, raped, and left for dead. The jogger, who we now know was Trisha Meili, would ultimately survive her attack, but the city of New York was hungry for justice to be served.
Nancy R. SchiffGetty Images. Former prosecutor Linda Fairstein oversaw the interrogation and trial of the " Central Park Five ," as depicted in Netflix series When They See Us. In the wake of the series, she's become the subject of great backlash. Now, Linda has sued Netflix for defamation. Thirty years might have passed since Linda Fairstein led ...
Still, they were found guilty in their 1990 trials and went on to serve years-long sentences in prison.
Back in 1989, the Big Apple was an open, bubbly pot of hell …. April 19, 1989 was the height of the crack epidemic and the city was a hotbed of violence. In the first half of the year, 837 murders were reported, as were 1,600 rapes, more than 43,000 robberies and 34,000 assaults, according to The New York Times.
Eric Reynolds, NYPD Central Park Precinct. WHAT HE DID: Back in 1989, Officer Eric Reynolds was a 29-year-old cop, raised in the Bronx and was already an eight-year NYPD veteran when the arrests were made in connection with the youths believed to be linked to Meili’s rape.
Director Ava DuVernay center with the central park 5 Raymond Santana left, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Anthony McCray and Yuesf Salaam attend the world premiere of “When They See Us” at the Apollo Theater on Monday, May 20, 2019, in New York.
WHAT HE DID: No surprise here that former NYPD Det. Michael Sheehan believes the investigation was handled correctly by experienced detectives. However, he also agrees with the others that Reyes’ confession turned the entire case on its head despite the work done by the department to place the five teens at the scene of the crime and that their own words should have prevented their full exoneration.
The Central Park Five case has been mostly seen through the eyes of the wrongly convicted, but it took the operatives of the criminal justice system to incarcerate them. They still maintain their stance, despite being proven wrong.
In Chicago, they started putting public defenders in police precincts for this very reason because that’s where violations of constitutional rights begins.
There was a rush to find out who committed this crime because of the media attention, but the political climate always plays a significant role in how they choose to proceed with a case.
“The key lesson here is that when you’re dealing with children as defendants, you can’t interrogate them them as you would adults. Young people will lie if they are afraid or forced. Prosecutors should know that.”—
According to The Guardian, Fairstein was a consultant on Harvey Weinstein’s legal team in 2015, and helped him on a sexual assault case. The case in question involved a model named Ambra Battilana; she alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by Weinstein.
Fairstein Now Writes a Fiction Series Known as the Alexandra Cooper Novels. Crime author Linda Fairstein As a prosecutor in Manhattan's District Attorney's Office, Linda Fairstein pioneered the use of DNA evidence in cases against sexual offenders. She was even the inspiration for some of the tough prosecutors you see on TV.
At the time of the rape and assault of Meili, Reynolds was a 29-year-old cop who had worked at the NYPD for eight years. Along with his partner Bobby Powers, he arrested Salaam, Richardson, and Santana (and identified McCray as a suspect) on the night of the attack and interrogated the group.
Sheehan, a former NYPD detective who played a key role in securing the false confessions, also maintains the investigation was handled properly and the teens were guilty. "It's really disheartening and disgraceful," Sheehan said of the exonerations. "Anyone who is out there saying that they're innocent and believing them, shame on them."