NYC releases documents connected to Central Park 5 case

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NEW YORK (AP) — New York City has started releasing about 100,000 pages of documents connected to the notorious case of the five men whose convictions in the rape and beating of the Central Park jogger were overturned after they served more than a decade behind bars.

About 12,000 pages went up Thursday on a site set up by the city.

Lawyers for the city and the five men have been in talks for three years over which police, prosecution and court documents should be released.

Thursday’s release was the first batch of records related to the case, consisting only of materials from the original investigation. The release was first reported by the Daily News.

The five black and Hispanic men were teenagers when they were convicted in the brutal 1989 rape of 28-year-old investment banker Trisha Meili.

Their convictions were vacated in 2002 because of evidence linking serial rapist Matias Reyes to the crime.

The so-called Central Park Five sued the city and were awarded a $41 million settlement in 2014.

Meili, who went public years later as the jogger victimized in the 1989 attack, told the Daily News she was eager to see the documents because they contain information she never had access to.