More than three decades ago, Steven Lopez agreed to a plea bargain rather than face trial in the high-profile case. Now, his conviction has been overturned.
Steven Lopez, 48, an often-overlooked co-defendant in the Central Park jogger case decades ago, had his conviction in a related case overturned during a court proceeding Monday in downtown Manhattan.Steven Lopez, 48, an often-overlooked co-defendant in the Central Park jogger case decades ago, had his conviction in a related case overturned during a court proceeding Monday in downtown Manhattan.
Lopez was among the group of Black and Latino teens charged in the sexual assault and brutal beating of white female jogger Trishna Meili in Central Park on April 19th, 1989. Unlike the other co-defendants, however, Lopez accepted a plea bargain rather than stand trial for rape. Two years later, he pleaded guilty to charges he robbed a male jogger in the park the same night Meili was attacked.
“I was roughly about the same age as Mr. Lopez when he pled guilty,” Bragg said at a press conference immediately following Biben’s order officially exonerating Lopez. “I can remember going from school to [Central Park] to play and the shadow of that case, in that moment in our criminal justice history, was with me day by day, and to this day.”
The motion before the court – put forth by Bragg’s office and signed by Renfroe as well – stated that Lopez’s conviction was unjust and his guilty plea was not “knowing, voluntary or intelligently made, but was borne out of egregious pressure brought on by the false statements of numerous witnesses,” and that his plea was “unconstitutionally obtained.”
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