NEW YORK - A Manhattan judge plans to render his decision today on whether to throw out the convictions of five young men in the Central Park jogger case.

State Supreme Court Justice Charles Tejada has called the defense attorneys and prosecutors to his courtroom for his written ruling, according to court spokesman David Bookstaver.

The judge is expected to vacate the convictions against the five men in one of the most notorious cases in New York history: the near-fatal assault and rape of an investment banker on April 19, 1989, as well as for their assaults on other people in the park and rioting that night.

Earlier this month, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office consented to defense motions to vacate the verdicts based on claims by a serial rapist, whose DNA was found to match semen on a sock from the scene of the attack on the female jogger.

The rapist, Matias Reyes, 31, who is serving 33 1/3 years to life in prison on four other rapes and a murder, claims he alone attacked the jogger.

Reyes also committed a rape in Central Park on April 17, 1989.

Karen Freifeld is a reporter for Newsday, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.