Kevin Richardson of the Central Park 5 was 14 years old when New York City police arrested him for the 1989 rape and beating of a jogger in Central Park, a crime he did not commit. He served roughly seven years in prison before his 1990 conviction was vacated in December 2002, after DNA evidence and a confession from serial rapist Matias Reyes established that Reyes alone had attacked the victim. Richardson, along with Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise, is now known as one of the Exonerated Five.
Arrested at 14
On the night of April 19, 1989, Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old jogger, was attacked, raped, and left for dead in Central Park. She was discovered in the early hours of April 20 with catastrophic injuries. Within days, police focused on a group of teenagers who had been in the park and were tied to a separate series of muggings that night. Five boys were arrested: McCray, 15; Richardson, 14; Salaam, 15; Santana, 14; and Wise, 16.1PBS. Conviction and Exoneration
How the Confession Was Obtained
Richardson and the others were questioned by experienced homicide detectives in sessions that lasted between 14 and 30 hours.2FindLaw. The False Confessions in the Central Park Jogger Case The most damaging statements came when no parent was present.3FindLaw. The False Confessions in the Central Park Jogger Case Videotaping began only after hours of prior questioning, so the recordings captured the final statements and none of the pressure that produced them.
Detectives falsely told the boys that hair evidence at the scene tied them to the victim. They separated the teenagers, fed each one statements from the others, and suggested that cooperation would make them witnesses rather than defendants. They also offered scripted versions of the crime for the boys to adopt.2FindLaw. The False Confessions in the Central Park Jogger Case Under New York law at the time, police were permitted to lie to suspects, including minors.4Innocence Project. From Injustice to Influence: The Enduring Legacy of the Exonerated Five
The resulting statements were inconsistent with one another and with reliable witness accounts, and none of the boys admitted to committing the rape. Each account minimized the speaker’s own role and blamed the others. Prosecutors treated the conflicting statements as a collective confession.2FindLaw. The False Confessions in the Central Park Jogger Case
Trial, Sentence, and Time Served
Richardson was tried and convicted in 1990. The prosecution had little physical evidence and relied heavily on the videotaped confessions.5Innocence Project. Six Years Later: The Central Park Jogger Case A hair found on Richardson was described at trial as resembling the victim’s hair, but DNA from the rape kit did not match him or any of the other four defendants.1PBS. Conviction and Exoneration The judge admitted the confessions even after the defendants recanted. Richardson was convicted on charges including rape and attempted murder.6Britannica. Central Park Five
He was sentenced to five to ten years.7Georgia State University. Kevin Richardson of the Exonerated Five Shares His Story Because he was a juvenile at conviction, he was first held in a youth facility and transferred to adult prison when he turned 18.8Lansing City Pulse. Central Park Five Member Tells Why He Is a Voice for Voiceless He served approximately seven years and was released in 1997, followed by three years of probation. The Innocence Project has recorded his time served at five and a half years of the original sentence.9Innocence Project. Kevin Richardson
How He Was Exonerated
In early 2002, Matias Reyes, a convicted murderer and serial rapist already serving a life sentence, confessed that he alone had attacked Meili. DNA testing confirmed that spermatozoa recovered from the rape kit matched Reyes. Mitochondrial testing showed hairs found on the victim also matched Reyes, and the hairs previously attributed to Richardson and the others did not belong to the victim. Blood and hair on a rock at the scene corroborated Reyes’s confession, which fit the pattern of an earlier 1989 rape he committed in the same area of the park.9Innocence Project. Kevin Richardson
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau reinvestigated. On December 19, 2002, the court vacated the convictions of all five men on the DA’s recommendation.10Innocence Project. Men Wrongfully Convicted in the Central Park Jogger Case Mark Fifth Exoneration Anniversary Richardson had already finished his sentence and probation by then.
The $41 Million Settlement
In 2003, Richardson and the four others filed a $250 million civil rights lawsuit against the City of New York. The case ran more than a decade. The parties agreed to a $41 million settlement in June 2014, and a federal judge signed off that September.11Innocence Project. Judge Signs Off on $41 Million Settlement With Central Park Five
The money was split according to time served. Richardson, McCray, Salaam, and Santana each received $7.125 million; Wise, who served roughly 12 years, received $12.25 million.11Innocence Project. Judge Signs Off on $41 Million Settlement With Central Park Five The agreement included a clause under which the city did not concede fault. Salaam called it “a bittersweet type of justice.”
Donald Trump’s Ads and Refusal to Apologize
Weeks after Richardson’s arrest, Donald Trump paid $85,000 for full-page advertisements in four New York City newspapers, including the New York Times, under the headline “Bring Back The Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!” In the ads, he wrote: “I want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes.”12The Guardian. Central Park Five: Donald Trump and the Case That Won’t Go Away The ads did not name the five teenagers but ran in direct response to the Central Park attack.13The New York Times. Trump Will Not Apologize for Calling for Death Penalty Over Central Park Five
Trump has never retracted his position. After the 2014 settlement, he wrote an opinion piece in the New York Daily News calling it “the heist of the century” and stating that “settling doesn’t mean innocence.” In 2019, asked at the White House whether he would apologize, he refused, saying “you have people on both sides of that” and that the men “admitted their guilt.”13The New York Times. Trump Will Not Apologize for Calling for Death Penalty Over Central Park Five
Richardson addressed those ads directly in August 2024, when he appeared with Salaam, Santana, and Wise on the primetime stage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He told the crowd: “My friends and I were imprisoned for a crime we did not commit. Every day as we walked into the courtroom, people screamed at us, threatened us, because of Donald Trump. He spent $85,000 on a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for our execution.”14C-SPAN. Members of Exonerated Central Park Five Speak at DNC
What Richardson Does Now
Richardson has spent much of his post-exoneration life working with young people and pushing for changes to police interrogation practices. In 2023, he founded the Kevin Richardson Foundation, which offers mentorship and programming for youth.4Innocence Project. From Injustice to Influence: The Enduring Legacy of the Exonerated Five In February 2025, he launched a workshop series called C.P.R., for Courage, Perseverance, and Resilience, that teaches teenagers about their civil rights, including the right to remain silent, and how to handle encounters with police. The first session was held at his alma mater, Bronx Preparatory Charter School, where he was presented with an honorary diploma.15CBS News New York. Kevin Richardson Exonerated 5 Civil Rights Workshop for Students He has said he plans to bring the workshops to cities across the country.16ABC7 New York. Kevin Richardson, Exonerated Central Park 5 Member, Inspires Youth With Social Issues Workshop
Richardson has also joined other members of the Exonerated Five in advocating for reforms to how police question suspects. A New York State law that took effect in 2018 requires police to videotape interrogations in serious felony cases; as of 2026, 30 states and the District of Columbia have adopted similar requirements.4Innocence Project. From Injustice to Influence: The Enduring Legacy of the Exonerated Five
On December 19, 2022, twenty years to the day after his conviction was vacated, the City of New York dedicated the Gate of the Exonerated at the Central Park entrance on 110th Street between Malcolm X Boulevard and Fifth Avenue, the first new named entrance in Central Park since the park’s founders named the original gates in the 19th century.17Central Park Conservancy. The Gate of the Exonerated: How the Park’s Newest Named Entrance Came to Be It honors Richardson and the other four men along with all people who have been wrongfully convicted.