Schoolteacher Beaten by Gang Testifies in Central Park Rape Trial

A schoolteacher testified Thursday that he was attacked and severely beaten by a gang of youths in Central Park on the same night that a woman jogger was gang raped, beaten and left for dead.

John Loughlin, 41, said he had been jogging around the park’s reservoir and that, seconds before he was accosted, he saw a group of youths standing around a person lying on the ground.

“It looked like there was someone in trouble so I stopped,” Loughlin said in the packed courtroom.

Loughlin, the most seriously injured man in the case, was one of a string of joggers who have testified at the State Supreme Court trial of three youths accused of being part of the gang that went on a “wilding” rampage in the park on April 19, 1989.

On trial are Antron McCray, 16, Yusef Salaam, 16, and Raymond Santana, 15, the first of the youths accused in the attack to go on trial. Each is charged with 13 criminal counts, including attempted murder, rape and sodomy, in the series of attacks.

If convicted, each faces a maximum sentence of 5 to 10 years in prison. All three were juveniles at the time of the attack.

Loughlin, a former Marine and ex-training officer for the Army National Guard, said that he had been jogging in fatigues and stopped and turned but found his way blocked by the first youth who spoke to him.

“Are you a vigilante?” he said the youth asked him.

“Then he called to the people I saw who were in front of me and said, ‘He’s one of those vigilantes.’ ”

Loughlin said at least three youths within 10 feet of him repeated: “Vigilante.”

He said he did not see the blow that struck him down seconds later.

“The next thing I remember I was face down on the ground,” Loughlin said. “I was being hit on the back of the head.”

Loughlin was hospitalized for two days after the attack.

According to police, Loughlin was attacked after the 29-year-old female jogger had been beaten unconscious and left in a pool of blood. She was the most seriously wounded of the victims.