When Netflix released When They See Us, the show reintroduced the world to the Central Park 5 and the way that the teenage boys of color were all wrongfully convicted of assaulting a female jogger back in 1989. Although the New York supreme court justice vacated all of the group's rape and assault charges in 2002, the scars of their traumatizing arrests, public scrutiny, and lengthy prison sentences remained.
Therefore Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise, received a $41 million settlement for their troubles. For Raymond Santana, his $8.2 million portion of the settlement money was a game-changing revelation that helped him find peace of mind after all he had been through.
In an interview with Pierre Thomas on "Pierre's Panic Room," the 44-year-old revealed to the podcast host exactly how he's been spending his money since becoming a millionaire. He also discussed the ways that fame from Ava Duvernay's Netflix series enhanced his ability to dive deeper into social activism. Santana stated that while he did splurge somewhat, his primary focus became public speaking once he finally quit his 9-5 day job.
"I quit working," Santana said. "We did the film with Ava. We was running around promoting that. And then I was on the circuit. Me and Yusuf did a lot of public speaking. So we spoke and universities and high schools. We'd been doing since 2004 and 2005. But When They See Us came out it catapulted us to a new platform and so it made everybody want to book us. So, we was busy."
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