‘Central Park Five’ law requires
cops to videotape interrogations
BY ROSE ADAMS
A new law put forward by
two Brooklyn legislators requires
police to videotape all
interrogations of minors to
prevent cops from extracting
false confessions.
The new law, which Gov.
Andrew Cuomo signed on Nov.
27, is named after the Central
Park Five, a group of teenagers
that was infamously convicted
of raping a Central Park
jogger in 1989.
The fi ve suspects, who
were between the ages of 14
and 16, falsely confessed to the
crime after police allegedly
subjected them to seven-plushour
interrogations that were
often violent.
It was only 13 years later,
when one of the accused met a
serial rapist in prison, that serial
rapist Matias Reyes confessed
to the crime and the suspects’
convictions were vacated.
The fi ve exonerated suspects
sued the city and state in 2014
and 2016, and were awarded $45
million in settlements.
Years after the infamous
Central Park Five case, the
state passed a package of criminal
justice legislation to prevent
the wrongful conviction of
minors, including legislation
in 2017 mandating that 16- and
17-year-olds be prosecuted as
juveniles rather than as adults,
and a 2018 bill requiring law
enforcement to videotape the
interrogations of suspects accused
of any serious crime.
The new bill, however, will
ensure that detectives can’t coerce
young suspects to confess
even in non-violent offenses,
according to the bill’s co-sponsor,
Coney Island Assemblywoman
Mathylde Frontus.
“When the power of law
enforcement is focused on minors,
we must make sure that
they are not coerced or manipulated
into confessing to something
that is not true,” Frontus
said. “What happened to
the Central Park Five, who we
now refer to as the Exonerated
Five, should never happen to
any child, and the way to ensure
that is with the transparency
that these recordings
will provide.”
Outgoing state Sen. Velmanette
Montgomery, who long
represented Fort Greene and
COURIER L 22 IFE, DEC. 18–24, 2020 M BR B G
Bedford-Stuyvesant, said the
new law will close the gap left
by Cuomo’s 2018 criminal justice
reforms.
“Even though we passed
Raise the Age, there are still so
many corners of the juvenile
justice system that need to be
addressed,” said Montgomery,
who introduced the bill in the
state Senate. “These coercive
situations are not uncommon.
Our children should never fi nd
themselves in a room alone
with law enforcement and no
record of the interaction.”
A committee within the
New York Bar Association
strongly supported the bill,
though some of its members argued
the bill’s vague language
could leave room for loopholes.
“Videotaping in the juvenile
rooms is not an onerous or
expensive process, and is conducted
voluntarily in many
parts of New York State. It can
yield a reliable, objective record
of the police’s interview
with the youth, which aids
both the prosecution/presentment
agency and the defense,”
wrote the bar’s Juvenile Justice
Committee in a November
letter to Cuomo. “In an age of
increasing accountability for
police misconduct, the need
for this law is clear to us.”
Kevin Richardson, one of the “Central Park Five,” takes a break with his
sister Crystal Cuffee during a 2014 news conference REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
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