this is "nightline." tonight, a city and country, thrown into turmoil over a jogger's rape. now 30 years later, we're hearing all sides. >> i was beaten and left for dead. >> days of police questioning leading to coessions. lady. she was jogging. >> sending the case back into the national spotlight, into a climate changed to this day. >> this special edition of "nightline," one night in central park, starts right now. >> i absolutely loved centralrk of the universe kind of.

>> but, by the 1980s, this place that was meant to barrier. >> night would fall, and it would change. it would become a place where you'd be nervous about going. >> where in 1989, you must remember that the city was in a real divisive, polarized condition. >> this is a sort of caldron in which the central park jogger narrative emerged. raping a young woman out on a ee jog that came at the intersection of race, class and politics in america. >> that wednesday night, it was easter vacation. kids would hang out a little later. there was no school till monday. >> you go from hanging out with friends, thinking that you're

going to go skateboarding in the park or walk around late to mayhem. >> we got a call of 30 to 40 males inside central park harassing people. >> we started to get a lot of radio runs of a group of black and hispanic teenagers, assaulting and harassing people. >> i would run to the park, just byhe w tng was very chaotic. we were lot of 911 calls. >> they're chasing a large group over there, about 30 to 40 people. >> a couple cars come, scooters. when it was all said and done, we had five kids. >> at first it seems like a relatively minor thing. they're going to send these kids to family court, and then this woman is found in the park, covered in blood, near death.

>> trish miley, knocked conscious, barely, barely alive. >> the discovery of trish lying in a ravine changes everything. >> i have seen traumatized patients many, many times, but i have never seen somebody like, destroyed. >> this is the cheekbone. and this was crushed severely. >> we all know what rape is. everybody knows what that is and can describe it, but there's nothing like seeing something like this, the atrocity of such an act. >> we ended up with five arrests. two of the five were kevin richardson and raymond santana. >> we had to go back out andsta that what involved in the attack. that included yusef salom, cory weiss and antwon mcray. >> days of questioning began. >> those are 14 and 15, they're supposed to have a parent or guardian present, and largely they do. but even the parents, i think,

are pretty naïve about what's going on. >> they used us. they used our lack of knowledge of the justice system against us. >> they're all starting to talk and give stories about what happened. >> these interrogations are not written down. >> i didn't know what was going on. i wanted to get the hell home. >> lead investigator in my case became fed up and slammed his fist on the table. >> if you take an individual 15 years old and put that individual in a room by themselves with two to four to six officers, that individual would be terrified. it could be almost tantamount to someone having a gun to your head. >> all of these kids, and in many cases their parents, believed that they would get to go home if they implicated other people, if they were helpful in the right way, and they were desperate to get out of that room. >> no detective of mine would ever say anything like that.

you're going to go home. in a crime like this? never. >> they played the parents against each other. they played the boys against each other. and they made up all of these stories to get their arrests and their convictions. >> how do you coerce somebody when he's sitting twhaer his parents? it's [ bleep ]. okay? >> elizabeth was the prosecutor in the central park jogger case. by all accounts, she was incredibly diligent. she was not one of these prosecutors just in it to win. >> in the early hours of the morning on the second day, under questioning, the teenagers make a fateful decision. they decide to start talking on. th wille my last time doing it. >> after a night in police custody, kevin richardson starts to talk, implicating himself in the night of mayhem and possibly the rape of tricia miley.

>> i came over there. >> and it's not just richardson. other teenagers are implicating themselves on video, too. >> she's on the ground. everybody's stomping on everything. >> everyone except yusef salom. he never goes on video and never makes a written statement. >> when i first saw those tapes, i didn't disbelieve them. like anybody else, when i watch a confession tape, my first impulse is, whoa, then, a person wouldn't really do that. >> my second impulse is to listen to the details and to be influenced by them. >> how did those marks get there? she has a fractured skull, she was hit with a very, very heavy object. corey, you saw that picture. you don't get these lines, you don't get a fractured skull.

>> it more like, it -- >> when you watch corey, it's almost like he's desperate to get it right. he tells one storidy moment, another story at another moment, yeah, when you look at false confession cases, when you told the truth, you didn't believe them and you made them change it. >> of course there's going to be inconsistencies between the statements. in my experience, when t atemt ere' a rht? inging to life in the in a coma. and then she started opening her tle did she know, she was waking up into a media firestorm. >> a terror spree through central park. >> they found her and they gang raped her. >> the shockwaves of the tragedy felt both north and south of the park. >> and it all contributed to this heightened sen of feaork.d.

>> the first trial involved three defendants, raymond santana, anton mcray and yusef salom. clearly, the statements were the most important evidence. >> the looks on the jurors' faces when they watched those videotapes told a devastating story for the defense. >> it's clear, as it has been for a year, that prosecutors will depend on videotaped statements by theusct emlves. afternoon, its strategy also became clear. the teens' lawyers say they were cleverly staged. >> they didn't have dna evidence against these defendants. they didn't have physical evidence against these defendants. >> so we as prosecutors were completely up front with the jury about the fact that did no

match any of the people that were on trial. >> after ten days of deliberations the verdict. yusef salom, santana and mccrea were all convicted of the rape and assault of the central park jogger. >> the next trial was kevin richardson and corrie wise. and once again the prosecution relied on those confissions. >> it was so graphic a couple dike they were having a hare watching it. >> ithe second struggled with corey wise' confessions. the facts were contradictory. self-contradicting. >> i didn't believe that he had anything to do with the rape. corey wise's confession didn't make any sense. several of the jurors kept at me

and at me. they pushed me to go the other direction, and i wish to god i had just hung the jury on that. that's been my biggest regret for 30 years. >> wise found guilty of sexual abuse, first degree assault and riot. and then with respect to kevin richardson, guilty on every charge. >> by 1997, four of the men completed their sentences and were released from prison. when we come back, an unexpected admission that put this story back in the headlines. >> i thought i left it there that day yes it is. jim, could you uh kick the tires? oh yes. can you change the color inside the car? oh sure. how about blue? that's more cyan but. jump in the back seat, jim. act like my kids. how much longer? -exactly how they sound. it's got massaging seats too, right?

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"nightline," one night in central park continues. here again, byron pitts. >> by 2002, the central park five were in the back of everyone's consciousness. still inrin.as one elw inteh a story that wouldiato steps ts

upside down. >> mathias reyes is a convicted, homicidal rapist, doing 33 years to life in new york prison. >> i did some real bad things to so many people and harmed them in so many ways. >> he's a bona fide psychopath, a serial rapist, he raped his own mother and raped and murdered a pregnant woman in front of her own two children. >> reyes came forward to say that he had been the one who had committed the attack upon the jogger. >> did you attack the central park jogger? >> yeah, i did. >> did you rape her? >> yes. >> did you beat her? >> mm-hm. >> did you leave her for dead? >> i thought i left her there for dead. >> mathias reyes manages to get the attention of law enforcement, and they do a dna

test, and they take his dna and compare it, and voila, they have what they never had in the trials in 1990. which is a match. a perfect match. >> i was like, oh, that's great. we got the final guy, the guy who's gotten away original any 1989. but then he turned around and said he did it by himself. >> i was alone that night. i saw the lady. she was jogging. at the right-hand side, i saw a piece of branch there. i struck her over the head with the branch, and she fell forward. i dragged her inside to the bushes. as i dragged her in there, i remember that i took off her clothes. >> reyes knew some things about the victim and the crime that had never been revealed and that only a person whoulkn >> the spring into the summer of 1989 there was a rash of violent

rapes, all along madison avenue, culminating in the murder of a woman on 97th street. i think the east side rapist they were calling him. >> the police officer investigating that had his dna marker in that caseoo p in cent park, not far from where the central park jogger had been attacked. >> the rape on april 17th, we knew nothing about. none of us in homicide knew anything about april 17th. sex crimes dealt with rapes. there's no sharing of information. maybe there is today. but back then, you know, they had a full case load. ours was >> the da vacated the convictions of the five men. >> now that does not mean that the five former defendants are exonerated. it doesn't prove that they're

innocent. it just means that in the eyes of the law, their convictions no longer exist. >> but some believed her injuries were too severe to be inflicted by just one attacker. >> when mathias reyes says he did it alone, it's not just the cops who don't believe it, trish meili herself doesn't believe he could have done it himself. >> there is medical evidence to support that more than one person was responsible for the attack on me. >> the new york city police department ends up feeling it needs to do something to tell its side of the story, and so the police commiio decides to appoint michael armstrong, who would deliver the armstrong report. >> i don't think there is any credible evidence at all that anything was done in an improper way to make them talk. >> so the police-led

investigation concluded that the police didn't do anything wrongy is they sue. they feel that they were railroaded into prison. they lost years of their lives. they want justice, they want money. >> this documentary comes out, and it's made by sarah burns, ken burns and david mcmahon. >> no money can bring their life that was missing with the time that was taken away, bring it back. >> it raises the possibility that they're actually innocent. >> that film was made while we had the equivalent of a gag order from a federal judge. we could not speak publicly. the daughter of the film maker had worked for the legal team of the five. i didn't exactly think we'd get a fair hearing. >> a judge has approved a settlement. >> reparations fore done. >> each received $7 million.

korey wise received $13 million. >> this is amazing. >> it's a classic settlement. on the one hand, the defendants get $41 million. and on the other hand, the city sticks by its cops and prosecutors. says we are not going to hang them out to dry. they did not engage in police misconduct. they did not engage in prosecutorial misconduct. >> i just don't believe a settlement floor kind of behavior. i'm sorry. >> it was outrageous. we were ready to go to the supreme court. >> when we come back, where they are now. that's great! that's 15% on top of what geico could already save you. so what are you waiting for? john stamos to knit you a scarf? all finished, jean. enjoy! thank you. i give. the stitch work is impeccable.

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my work now is standing with survivors of brain injury, of sexual assault, of other kinds of trauma. i believe they gain strength, too, to move forward. >> dicky: from hollywood, it's "jimmy kimmel live," with guest host, rob lowe. tonight, danny devito, and our new health care hero of the week. and now, rob lowe. >> rob: hello, and welcome to jimmy kimmel live. i'm your guest host, rob lowe. you probably know me from my work as an actor or as your mom's "hall pass." or maybe even your dad's. it's been a lifelong dream of mine to host a late night talk

show. and here we are with no audience, no band, no laughter. it is late night, and i am talking on a show. so technically speaking, my dream has come true! but i haven't been doing much during quarantine. i started a podcast "literally with rob lowe." check it out. other than that i've just been glued to the television. been watching a lot of baseball. i'm a huge dodger fan. maybe, have you seen this? because there are no crowds, they're letting fans pay to have cardboard cutouts of themselves put into the stands, my son and i did this for opening day. there we are. prominently seated right there behind home plate. look at that! a cardboard cutout has a better seat than i ever did. very excited about this until the other day.