VCU news

By James Shea

Kevin Richardson spent over five years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He told several hundred students at Virginia Commonwealth University that he draws inspiration from them while he is working to make the world a better place. 

“I really see myself through you guys, because I wanted to go to college,” Richardson said. “I was robbed from that.”

Richardson was 14 years old in 1989 when he and four other youths were arrested and charged with the brutal rape of a jogger in Central Park in New York. They were locked in a police precinct for hours and falsely confessed to the crime. Years later, another man confessed to the crime, but not before the youths, who became known as the Central Park Five, underwent an unprecedented experience, as the case was a media spectacle.

“It’s surreal, because when I tell people what literally happened to me, what I’ve been through, when I was 14 years old, I’m 45 now, that I’ve been fighting for practically my whole life,” Richardson said.

A crime wave happened in April of 1989 in Central Park. Richardson lived across the street from the park and was out playing basketball. It was getting late, and he was worried about missing curfew. As he was walking home, a police van pulled up and he ran. He went back into the park and was eventually arrested. At the time, he was charged with rioting and unlawful assembly. 

Richardson said he should not have run, but he was scared.

“Even if you didn’t do anything wrong in New York, you can still be guilty of the color of your skin,” Richardson said. “I ran because everybody else did.”

The interrogation, Richardson said, began as good cop-bad cop. At the time, Richardson did not know any of the other Central Park five. Over time, the police started to frame questions in a way that made him admit that he knew the other youths. He said he was naive. He did not realize that when he admitted to knowing them, he was also making himself a suspect to the crime. 

Richardson was not represented by an attorney and his mother was not given access to him, despite coming to the police station. He was alone and did not see any way out other than admitting to something.

“They took us down to the precinct, and they were basically terrorizing us,” Richardson said. “How were they able to do that? There was basically no evidence. I had to take it all in and do that. The parents weren’t around. It doesn’t seem possible.”

Two years later, Richardson was convicted of 13 counts and sentenced to five to 10 years in prison. His family suffered greatly through the ordeal. His mother received threats before the trial and had a heart attack when the verdict was read. Richardson said he cannot understand how people could say such negative things about him when they did not know him. He was innocent, but he said a mob mentality formed in the media and the community.

“The story is that we were all in some type of gang, some type of cult,” Richardson said. “They called us urban terrorists. We didn’t know each other.”

In 2002, Matias Reyes, a convicted rapist, confessed to the crime and DNA evidence was able to confirm his confession. Richardson was already out of prison, but the confession cleared his name. The city of New York eventually awarded the five men $41 million for the false convictions. 

Thirty years after the incident, Richardson has a platform to speak about injustice and the need to improve the criminal justice system. A Netflix miniseries, “When They See Us,” was produced about the case, and Oprah did a special where she interviewed the five.

The film, Richardson said, was “painful, but it’s necessary.” He attended a private screening before the release and said he felt every emotion. He called it a therapy session for him and the others, whom he now calls his “brothers.”

Richardson said he is traveling around the country telling his story. The mostly African American crowd at VCU seemed to resonate with his story. He received numerous applauses and a standing ovation at the end. He said he is excited that the film has given him and the others a platform. 

“They tried to silence us, but they woke up a beast,” Richardson said. “They woke up a sleeping giant. We have to spread the truth. They are not physically scared of us as people. They are scared of our brains. They are scared of us as kings and queens.” 

Richardson works with the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal organization that helps exonerate people wrongly convicted of a crime. He has two daughters and is worried about the future. He sees racial tensions increasing in the country and the upsurge in violence. 

“I’m scared,” Richardson said. “I’m scared for our people. I’m scared for my daughters. I’m scared for the world, because what happened to us, you think that would be so horrific that there would be change since then. But it’s still going on. There has to be some kind of common ground to make it stop.” 

He was asked how people in the audience could work to make sure something similar to the Central Park case does not happen again.

“You need to be involved in your community,” Richardson said. “You have to start from there. You have to start from the youth. They are like a seed. You have to groom them until they are better and wonderful.”