“Central Park Five” Documentary Maker Quashes City Subpoena

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns successfully quashed a subpoena issued by the City of New York seeking footage and notes from Burns’ film The Central Park Five.  On February 19, 2013, New York Federal District Court Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis quashed the City’s subpoena, ruling that the journalistic evidentiary privilege applied and that the information and materials sought were available from other sources.  The film features interviews of the five men convicted of rape in the 1889 Central Park jogger case who were later exonerated through DNA evidence and have since sued New York City for malicious prosecution and civil rights violations.