Twenty-nine years are gone since Meili, then 28, jogged into Central Park and barely survived: Raped, beaten beyond recognition, left with no recollection of the crime that changed her life. And now, with the city dropping a massive amount of documents on the case, she welcomes the idea of peering into the past for some answers.

“I’ve wanted to know what happened and who was involved” since Reyes came forward, she said. “And ideally I want to be sure because the last thing I want is for innocent people to have been convicted.”

But she hopes the unsealed records do more than satisfy her burning curiosity. Meili wants to bring justice to the police and prosecutors who fought so hard to bring it to her during the investigation and trial.

Meili believes firmly the Central Park Five were not wronged by the NYPD or the Manhattan DA’s office.

“When that lawsuit was settled, it gave some the impression that the detectives and the prosecutors had acted improperly and I’d like to see it be acknowledged that there wasn’t a violation of (the teens’) civil rights,” Meili said.

Meili, in the years since the depraved attack, has become in many ways a student of her own tragedy — poring over details of the crime in books, news clippings, records and other media. She's also shared extensive conversations with law enforcement officials, medical professionals and others involved in the case.

Her digging led Meili to conclude that police and assistant prosecutors fought the good fight, and are innocent of accusations they railroaded five black and Latino teens.

The quintet was cleared in 2002 after the Manhattan district attorney’s office conducted a re-investigation and obtained a sworn confession from Reyes. A DNA match confirmed his tale of culpability for the Meili rape.

Convictions of the so-called Central Park Five were vacated as ex-Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau opted for no retrial.

But critics of the decision say they were tried and found guilty in another brutal Central Park attack that night and argue the evidence does not rule them out as possible participants in Meili’s case.
Meili questioned whether Reyes’ word that he was a lone assailant should have held such weight. She doesn't put “much credibility” to his admission, describing Reyes as a “pathological liar” and “sociopath.”

While the city admitted no wrongdoing, the bombshell $41 million settlement with Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salam and Kharey Wise in 2014 was seen by Meili as backpedaling from the city’s long-held promise to defend the actions of the investigators.

She views the deal as a way for Mayor de Blasio to score political favor with his liberal base.

For years, city attorneys under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg battled lawyers for the plaintiffs in court and vowed to defend the case.

“I was shocked and somewhat disgusted,” Meili said. “And really so disappointed that the case against the city claiming the detectives and prosecutor had acted improperly ... that it was settled for what seems to me like a campaign promise from then-candidate Bill de Blasio.”

She said the Democratic mayor apparently relied on the narrative espoused in the 2012 Ken Burns documentary “The Central Park Five,” which strongly suggests misconduct on behalf of investigators.

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