Steven Lopez has spent more than 30 years paying for a crime which he didn’t commit — the rape of a Central Park jogger in 1989. Monday, that injustice was finally lifted off his shoulders.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg moved to dismiss the indictment against Lopez Monday afternoon, who was falsely accused of participating in the infamous rape case. Bragg stood before Judge Ellen Biben inside the New York Supreme Court on July 25 and told the court that it is time for Lopez’s record to be expunged after he was forced to admit to a robbery to avoid being convicted of a rape he didn’t commit.
Bragg argued that statements made during the time of the arrest have since been recanted, and DNA samples from hair were found not to have been connected with the case.
The shocking rape case in the late 1980s led to the false conviction of five Black teenagers linked to the crime. Lopez was a forgotten extra member of the “Central Park Five,” a group of young men who became a lightning rod of public anger in New York at the time, with then-developer and future President Donald Trump taking out an infamous full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty.
The sexual assault of 28-year-old investment banker Trisha Meili has followed Lopez like a looming shadow for his entire life. Only 15 when he was arrested, Lopez struck a plea deal in which he confessed to the robbery of a male runner in hopes of avoiding being convicted of the more widely publicized rape.
In 2002, the Central Park Five were exonerated after it was believed the true culprit, Matias Reyes, was fingered for the brutal crime. The rape convictions against the Five were overturned, and they went on to gain a $41 million settlement for the group’s lengthy prison tenure.
Still, Lopez was forgotten — having received no compensation and very little media attention, up until Monday.
Lopez was held by police behind bars for almost an entire day before even being questioned and when he was eventually probed without the aid of translators, he refused to admit to playing a role in the rape. Now, almost 35 years later, Lopez is finally seeing justice served with Judge Biben deeming that there is no evidence connecting him to the alleged crime.
“Many have larger forgotten that there were six who were falsely accused of rape Central Park Jogger. Today, Mr. Lopez joins the other five who had their convictions vacated. What is so striking to me is how young Mr. Lopez was when both he was arrested and then when he pled guilty under extraordinary pressure,” Bragg said. “He saw the outcome of two trials, not one but two trials, of the final series of teenagers charged before him. He was questioned in the middle of the night. He was implicated by unreliable forensic evidence, and by statements and as many of you will recall, he was up against incredible public scrutiny.”
While Lopez was all smiles in court, he immediately left following the proceedings in an effort to celebrate his victory privately.
This mark’s Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s first wrongful conviction exoneration while in office.
