Told Son to Lie, Say He Raped Jogger, Father Testifies

The father of a youth accused in the brutal attack on a Central Park jogger testified Friday that he had urged his son to lie and say he had raped the woman because police officers promised it would save him from jail.

“You better tell us what we want to hear and cooperate or you are going to jail,” Bobby McCray said policemen shouted at his son Antron, then 14, during questioning about the Central Park attack.

His son and wife, Linda, were crying as policemen screamed at the youth, who earlier admitted only to being with a gang that attacked a homeless man and male joggers during a two-hour “wilding” rampage in the park.

“What about the woman?” the father recalled police officers demanding in a Manhattan precinct station.

“I don’t know about the woman. I didn’t do anything,” Antron McCray sobbed, according to his father, the first witness for the defense.

The police interrogation occurred a day after the April 19, 1989, attack that left a woman jogger with her head bashed in and near death.

After talking to a detective in the hall, the father said, he went back into the interrogation room and in desperation told his son to lie and confess to the rape and beating of the woman, believing police would release the boy.

“I got upset and angry” about telling his son to lie, Bobby McCray said in a Manhattan state court, where the youth and two others are on trial on 13 counts, including rape and attempted murder.