The 39-year-old father and his teenage daughter told police they were drinking beer at the Osborn Playground in Brownsville last Thursday night when they were accosted by the five youths, between the ages of 14 and 17, who then proceeded to rape the 18-year-old after threatening the father with a gun.
Following the teens' arrests earlier this week, however, two of the boys offered a different version of events, insisting that they had consensual sex with the 18-year-old.
They also claimed to have witnessed the young woman having sex with her father in the park before the man staggered away from the scene, leaving his daughter alone with the teens.
'They're just trying to get out of the thing they did,' the unnamed father told the New York Post Thursday on his way to a deli to buy beer. 'I want them to rot in jail.'
Meanwhile, it merged yesterday afternoon that all five of the five suspects - Onandi Brown and Travis Beckford, both 17, Denzel Murray, 14, Shaquelle Cooper and Ethan Phillip, both 15 – will be released from jail later Thursday.
All five teens have been charged as adults with rape, criminal sex act, sexual abuse and other charges. They deny the allegations.
At a press conference today, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton talked about a video that has been retrieved from the cellphone of one of the teenage suspects, calling it a 'significant piece of evidence.'
Bratton did not specify what was in the video, only saying that it was 'nine to 11 seconds' long.
The commissioner then added cryptically: 'The first story is never the last story. I think in this case that's certainly the case or will prove to be the case.'
On Wednesday, attorney Spencer Leeds, who represents Onandi Brown, dismissed the alleged victim's allegations as a total lie, claiming that the girl and her father failed to pick any of the first four suspects from a police lineup.