The city wants PBS icon Ken Burns to cough up outtakes from his documentary “The Central Park Five,” about the teens wrongly convicted of the infamous 1989 jogger rape.
City lawyers had asked, in a Sept. 12 subpoena, for all cutting-room floor material before tailoring their request to just unused interview footage of the five men originally convicted of the crime.
They were later cleared, and are now suing the city. The Burns subpoena will almost surely go before a judge.
“The material goes to the heart of their claims, that’s why it’s important to have it,” said city lawyer Celeste Koeleveld.
The assault on jogger Trisha Meili stunned New Yorkers and came to symbolize the city’s out-of-control crime. All five young men were exonerated when career criminal Matias Reyes copped to the rape and DNA backed him up.
Burns, who has advocated for the five, accused city lawyers of using the subpoenas to stall justice.
“For the last 10 years, the city has refused to settle,” Burns said.
“This strikes us as an effort to delay and deny closure and justice to these ïve men, each of whom was cleared of guilt.”