WHY REYES ADMITTED RAPE (The 1989 Central Park Jogger Case)

With the five black and Hispanic men who, in 1989, confessed to beating almost to death, and who fingered each other for raping Trisha Meili, then known to whites as The Central Park Jogger, now seeking to mug the city's predominantly white and Asian tax base out of $250 million, it helps to recall what this case is really about.

Nicholas Stix

WHY REYES ADMITTED RAPE

New York Post ^ | 12/05/02 | ANDY GELLER and MURRAY WEISS

Posted on 12/05/2002 1:20 AM PST by kattracks

December 5, 2002 -- EXCLUSIVE

Cops suspect Matias Reyes confessed to raping the Central Park jogger to win protection from a Muslim prison leader who was serving time for the horrific attack, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.

Reyes, a convicted murderer and serial rapist, made the bombshell confession in January while he and Kharey Wise, one of the Jogger 5, were inmates at the Auburn Correctional Facility near Syracuse.

State records show Reyes, 33, and Wise, 30, were both at the lockup from Aug. 8, 2001, to March 4, 2002. They also had been in Rikers Island together in 1989 and got into a fight.

Two law-enforcement sources told The Post cops believe Reyes made the confession to score points with Wise, who has become a very powerful Muslim leader during his 11 years in prison.

Reyes, who has given a DNA sample, knew that under the state's expanded DNA data-bank program - begun in October 1999 - he would eventually be identified as having raped the jogger, the sources said.

"So he does Wise a favor and gets himself major protection in state prison," one of the sources said.

Reyes was transferred to Attica in March 4 and to the Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate Dannemora on June 19. Wise remained at Auburn until he was paroled Aug. 12.

Detectives had heard that Reyes and Wise had connections and spoke on the phone, although they were in different lockups.

So, two weeks ago, they went to Clinton to talk to Reyes' fellow inmates about his confession. But they got nowhere, the sources said.

The first inmate they interviewed told them that prosecutor Nancy Ryan, who is directing the new probe of the case, called and said, "I'm not to talk to you," the sources said.

Earlier, when cops went to talk to Reyes, they were cut off in mid-interview by Ryan, the sources said.

The Manhattan DA's office declined to comment.

In his confession, Reyes said he alone raped and beat the jogger on the night of April 19, 1989.

Reyes said he zigzagged behind the woman, then a 28-year-old investment banker, knocked her down with a tree branch, raped her and beat her with a rock when she tried to escape.

His DNA matched that found at the scene. As a result, Wise and four other teens, who were convicted largely on confessions they made, are now seeking to have those convictions overturned.

Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau, who reopened the investigation into the attack last January, is to respond to their motions today.

The jogger lay undiscovered for about four hours, oozing blood from cuts in her head made by a knife, razor or other sharp object.

Robert Kurtz, the doctor who saved the woman's life, says these cuts call into question Reyes' claim he acted alone because he never mentioned using a knife in his confession or a subsequent TV interview.