(mysterious music)
The jogger was discovered about 1
30 in the morning by passersby. She was in the underbrush in the northern reaches of the park, and she was taken to Metropolitan Hospital. Her skull was fractured, she lost a good deal of her body fluids, she was virtually dead. The kids were about to be released, when a detective who realized the gravity of the injuries of the victim called the precinct and said "Hold onto those guys," and it was from that moment forward that everything plowed towards them. (suspenseful music) The next time I heard from my mother, she woke me up. She says "I'm still here at the precinct." And I says, "Well, why are you still there?" and she said "well they're saying they're waiting "for paperwork." I was wondering what's wrong, and I told them if I could see my son because he was in the room with all the kids. And they said "No, you gotta wait 'til morning." So I tell my mother "Stay with him," and let me go away. They probably gonna release him in the morning anyway. I don't see nothing wrong. And I went to work. (police radio chatter) Initially the case was going to be handled by the Central Park Precinct, but she was thought to be near death, and homicide cases are handled typically by these homicide squads. And Manhattan North was a prestigious bunch of detectives with a great deal of pride in their work and swagger in their step. Two prosecutors, Linda Fairstein, and Elizabeth Lederer. They were part of the investigation, and they were operating not only as prosecutors, but investigators. (television news plays in the background) I was getting ready for work and I heard the news. And instantly your mind goes into the calculus. -
Newscaster
The jogger was discovered about 1
The unidentified woman was... An unidentified white woman found raped in Northern Central Park. Oh. I think virtually every ethnic and racial group in New York has these moments where your heart just sort of stops and your stomach turns, and you think to yourself, please don't let it be us. -
Newscaster
The jogger was discovered about 1
Police have five teenagers in custody right now. First, we was all together, then they started to put us in different rooms, separately. Different cops coming back and forth, and one cop saying "We just heard that a woman was raped and beaten "in the park." Now he says, "What happened to the lady?" And I'm saying, "What lady?" And he says "What do you mean, what lady? "The lady who got raped in the park." I said "Yeah, I was in the park. "And yeah, I was all around. "But that I don't know about." "What do you mean you don't know? You just..." and I said "No. "I never came across no lady." So now we're going back through the statement from the top, again. What did you do, who were you with, who did you come with? And same answers again. They were getting a little angry 'cause I guess they're not getting a word out of anybody. The detectives are trying to piece together a narrative of what happened. And they're trying to make it fit what they know happened, a woman ended up at the bottom of a ravine in the park almost dead, and a bunch of other people got hassled or hurt in some way by these kids, so they're trying to make the story climb some sort of ladder of facts. All hell is breaking lose in Central Park that night. And there are gangs of kids running around making mischief. It's not so hard to understand why these kids were brought in, why they were interrogated so aggressively why police believed they had amongst them the culprit or culprits. Now they just have to get the proof of it. Another detective came into the room, he called my grandmother. And he said "Listen, can I talk to you outside "for a minute?" And when he took her outside, that's when it started. He looks at me, he's like, "Oh, this is the scumbag "right here that did it." I remember one guy specifically tell me, "You want to spend 25 to life on Riker's Island? "You want to go to jail for rape? "'Cause they don't like guys that rape women," and things like that. And I'm saying, I'm telling the guy, "I don't know "what you're talking about." Now the other officer comes in, he had red hair, short guy, and he was like, "Oh, so this is "the prick right here?" Arroyo says "Yeah, this is the guy here, he doesn't "want to tell us what happened." And I'm sitting there like, "No, what's going on?" And now Arroyo starts to yell at me, and then this guy pulls up a chair next to me. He starts to yell right in my ear. So I have Arroyo here yelling at me, blowing smoke in my face with the cigarette, and then I have this guy on my side, he's yelling at me. And they're like "You know you f--ing did it," "You stuck your f--ing d--k in her right, didn't you?" and I'm like, "What are you talking about? "I didn't stick nothin' in nobody." And I start to cry a little bit. And then Hartigan jumps in and I was grateful at that point, I was grateful because Hartigan stopped them from trying to hurt me. Then the other guy came back in, screaming, yelling, violating my personal space, so close he's spitting on me. And then my mother, she came to the door, and she said "I need to see my son, I need to see my son," I looked out and I seen one detective take her by the shoulder, pull her back to her chair, and while he's talking to her, they closed the door and they're questioning me. They knew that my mother was a weak person, was disabled, and they used that. You know, they used that. The officers that actually met me outside, they were like "Oh, your mother's, she's not well, "and since you're of age, you can stay and replace "your mother and we'll send her on home in a "squad car and we'll make sure she's okay." And they said she was cooperating with this process, so we're sure that you're gonna cooperate as well. "So that," they constantly kept saying, "So that your "brother can go home. "So that your brother can go home." And that's all I wanted, I just wanted to get him back home. -
Teenager 3
The jogger was discovered about 1
There's a loud knock at the door. It was three or four detectives. I thought they was there because of the assaults on the people in Central Park. My father, he let them come in. These men, they look like giants, compared to my father. They asked me, "put some sneakers on," they told my father they was gonna take me out to the precinct. My father called my mother, and my mother met us at the precinct. They was asking me questions about a female jogger in Central Park. And I was like, "There was only one woman, "and she was with a man on a bike. "But they rolled off." And they was like "You sure?" And I was like "Yeah." "What about the lady that got raped?" And I'm like, "What lady that got raped?" And they just kept asking me about this lady that got raped, and I kept tellin' them, there's only one lady. Then they asked my mother to leave the room. I'm looking at my father. He's like, "Are you telling the truth?" I was like, "Yeah, dad, I'm telling the truth. "I swear I'm telling the truth." I always told my father the truth. I don't know nothing about no jogger. I know some people got beaten up. I had nothing to do with that. Then they asked me tell my story again. This time, yelling at me, all up in my face, pointing at me, poking me in my chest. It just kept going on and on and on. We stopped a few times, because I was crying. I had no protection. My father didn't do anything. I was scared. -
Raymond
The jogger was discovered about 1
Hours have passed. -
Kevin
The jogger was discovered about 1
Time kept going by. -
Antron
The jogger was discovered about 1
They kept asking questions. -
Raymond
The jogger was discovered about 1
No food, no drink. -
Antron
The jogger was discovered about 1
I didn't eat, I didn't get no sleep. -
Raymond
The jogger was discovered about 1
And I didn't know when it was gonna end.
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