The New York Times reports explosive new evidence in the Central Park Jogger case today. Investigators are nearing completion into their inquiry of Mattias Reyes' recent confession to the crime and statement that he acted alone, which if true, would clear the five youths who confessed and served time for the jogger's rape.

Journalist Jim Dwyer reports that Reyes has now told investigators that he committed another rape two nights earlier in the same area of the park, again acting alone. They have confirmed the key details of his account. But the defendants in the jogger's case were never told there was another rape, despite the woman having been taken to the hospital after being beaten and raped.

Investigators say that the first rape was investigated by the sex crimes unit of the Police Department while the jogger's rape was referred to the homicide division of Manhattan North because it was believed the jogger would die. Apparently, the information on the first rape was never turned over those investigating the jogger's rape.

"On the afternoon of April 17, 1989, a Monday, a woman in her 20's went to do tai chi exercises in an area of Central Park called Fish Fort, off 106th Street. A young man strolled up and began chatting with her. Something in his manner made the woman uncomfortable, she later told detectives, so she moved to leave. Then the man pounced. He beat her face and head, pulled off her clothes and assaulted her sexually until another man, hearing the woman's screams, arrived on the scene. The attacker fled. The woman's injuries were so severe that she was admitted to St. Luke's Hospital and spent at least two nights there, officials said."

"Those two rapes, on April 17 and April 19, were the second and third of the year in the Central Park precinct. The investigation into the April 17 attack was handled by the sex crimes unit of the Police Department. Detectives from another unit, Manhattan North Homicide, oversaw the investigation into the attack on the jogger, because her condition was so grave that officials originally expected that she would not survive....For reasons that are not clear, investigators say, there is no sign that the information about the April 17 rape was turned over to the detectives handling the attack on the jogger."

Lawyers at the trial of one of the defendants had argued that the "real attacker was still unknown and would be out committing more rapes and possibly even murder." But they had never been told of the first rape which surely would have strengthened their defense.

"After the two assaults in Central Park, Mr. Reyes continued to rape women on the Upper East Side, and killed one in an apartment on East 97th Street before he was arrested in August 1989 leaving a building on East 92nd Street after another rape attempt." Reyes was convicted of these last crimes, but he was not charged with either the jogger's rape or the one that occurred two nights earlier.

The current investigation has confirmed no physical evidence links any of the five youths who were convicted of raping the jogger with the crime. A hearing on their motion to vacate their convictions is scheduled for October 21.

(Thanks to The Minute Man for sending us this article, he's going to write about it Monday.)