Inmate says Reyes raped her after teens attacked (1989 Central Park Jogger Case)

December 5, 2002
By BARBARA ROSS and ALICE McQUILLAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

The rapist who now says he alone attacked the Central Park jogger once told a fellow inmate that a "group of kids" assaulted her first, law enforcement sources said yesterday.

The stunning account was revealed to the Daily News hours before Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau was expected to recommend clearing five defendants convicted of the 1989 attack.

Matias Reyes' lone-attacker story, which surfaced this year, has turned the jogger case upside-down.

But an inmate says that in 1999 he heard Reyes tell an entirely different tale, according to law enforcement sources, who gave the following account to The News:

Reyes, who was behind bars for murder and rape, became friends with the fellow inmate, a convicted killer. He reportedly told his prison pal he was in Central Park, riding high on angel dust and crack, the April evening in 1989 when the jogger was attacked.

Hearing a woman's screams, Reyes said he ran over to see a group of teenagers beating a jogger.

He believes he scared them off or they ran away. Left alone with the dazed and beaten woman, Reyes said he then continued attacking her. DNA evidence tested this year backs Reyes' claim that he raped her.

Law enforcement sources say they have been stymied in their attempts to corroborate the inmate's account by Manhattan prosecutor Nancy Ryan, a top aide to Morgenthau who ran the new investigation into the jogger case.

Ryan believes Reyes acted alone and doubts the inmate's account, the sources said.

The sources said she also barred two other inmates from speaking about Reyes, infuriating some investigators who believe the five youths also attacked the jogger.

"All this highlights why there should be a hearing where Reyes' credibility is tested in a court of law," said former prosecutor Linda Fairstein, who supervised the original jogger probe. "Let him be cross-examined on what he said."

In another development, law enforcement sources told The News that officials were able to talk with another inmate who said he carried a threat in prison late last year to Reyes.

The inmate said Reyes had been threatened with violence if he didn't take sole responsibility for the jogger attack.