Ken Burns, whose film “The Central Park Five” tells how a group of young men were wrongly convicted in one of the city’s most infamous rape cases, says incoming New York City mayor Bill De Blasio has agreed to settle with the men.
De Blasio’s office did not return a call or email for comment from TheWrap. Burns, whose film was released in theaters last year and aired on PBS in the spring, said the settlement would bring their decade-old civil suit against the city to a close.
Also read: Ken Burns Wins Legal Fight Over ‘Central Park Five’ Subpoena
“Bill de Blasio, the mayor-elect, has agreed to settle this case,” he told HuffPo Live on Tuesday. “And though this is justice delayed way too long, and that is justice denied, [they] will not only be exonerated, but they will have justice, they will see some closure, they will be able to be made whole.”
Burns made the film with his daughter, Sarah Burns, who wrote a book of the same name. The film and book argue that the five black and Hispanic men, teens at the time, were coerced into confessing to the horrific rape and beating of a female jogger in 1989.
Also read: Ken Burns Totally Watches ‘Boardwalk Empire’
DNA linked serial rapist Matias Reyes to the crime after a decade — after the wrong men had already served years behind bars. They subsequently sued, but the case has yet to be resolved.