Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 8,384
Staten Island / New Jersey
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The initial reaction here is "bullshit", but it is still under investigation. Looks like most people, including myself, are wrong: Staten Island teens' night of hatred targeted others, prosecutors say.
It was pure hatred that prompted two 18-year-olds from Staten Island's East Shore to allegedly jump in their car and cruise to Stapleton to seek out an African American, any African American, to pummel bloody, on the night Barack Obama became the country's president elect.
Those were the charges leveled by the District Attorney's office at Ralph Nicoletti of Wadsworth Avenue, Fort Wadsworth, and Bryan Garaventa of the 100 block of Maryland Avenue in Rosebank -- both 18 -- during their arraignment this morning at Stapleton Criminal Court. (Click here for a photo gallery.)
The defendants, looking pale and exhausted, were both charged with assault in the second degree as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon, in connection with the election night incident, in which they are accused of jumping out of their slow-moving vehicle on Vanderbelt Avenue, and setting upon 17-year-old Ali Kamara, beating the teen bloody with a pipe and an asp baton, while yelling "Obama."
"This is a despicable crime," said Assistant District Attorney Mario Mattei, as the defendants stood wearing jeans in front of Judge Desmond Green. "They were out to target black people."
About a dozen of the suspects' family members looked on from the back of the court room.
As the young defendants' mothers stood by their sides -- Nicoletti's mother bald from treatments from what his attorney called a terminal illness -- the judge set bail at $10,000 cash or $25,000 collateral. The two are set to return to court Thursday.
Two additional suspects are also being sought according to police. The men, according to court papers, got riled up for their night by saying "let's get some n----" and beat Kamara with a pipe and an asp baton, calling the weapon a "n---- beater."
The victim needed staples to close the lacerations in his head, and the impact of the attack badly bruised his legs, arms and torso.
Before sneaking up from behind Kamara in their car with their headlights turned off and then jumping him, the defendants committed a number of other crimes of hatred, according to the District Attorney's office, which is continuing to gather evidence.
They yelled racial slurs from their car at a crowd gathered outside a Stapleton barber shop, where people had gathered to celebrate the historic victory of President-elect Obama.
The FBI and the United States Department of Justice are also investigating the crime, according to the District's Attorney's office.
Attorneys for the defendants would not comment on the incident, but said their clients would make bail.
Family and friends shunned questions from the press, as they ducked out of the courtroom
Garaventa and Nicoletti could face 15 years if convicted.
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