Officer Tells of 2 Arrests After Jogger Attack

A police officer testified Monday about arresting two youths charged with beating and raping a jogger and leaving her for dead in Central Park, describing how he confronted a pack of teen-agers stalking through the park after the attack.

Under questioning in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Officer Eric Reynolds told how he was patrolling a moonlit Central Park on April 19, 1989, in an unmarked van after a number of reports had come over his police radio about attacks by gangs of youths.

Reynolds said he and his partner then came upon a large group of youths walking in the park.

“As we rode alongside of them, the group stopped and they started pointing together at the van. They were all together, like a pack,” Reynolds said. “We got out of the van, identified ourselves and told them not to run.”

In response to questioning from prosecutor Elizabeth Lederer, Reynolds said all but two of the group of youths ran away when they spotted the police.

The two, Steven Lopez and Raymond Santana, were taken into police custody and later charged.

Santana, 15, is one of the three youths on trial before Justice Thomas Galligan for the attack on the jogger. The other two are Antron McCray, 16, and Yusef Salaam, 16. Each is charged with 13 criminal counts, including attempted murder, rape and sodomy.

If convicted, each faces a maximum sentence of five to 10 years imprisonment.

Lopez was expected to be tried at a later date on the same charges in the case of the woman jogger, who was gang-raped, beaten and left for dead.

On cross-examination during Reynolds’ daylong testimony, the three defense lawyers tried to draw out inconsistencies in the officer’s recollection of the sequence of events the night of the attack.

Reynolds acknowledged that there were minor mistakes made in some of the paper work completed the night of the arrest. He also said he never asked Santana if he wanted to make a phone call after he was taken into custody.

The lawyers tried to show that the arrest of the three youths had been illegal because police had failed to comply with proper procedures.