3 charged in election night attacks

NEW YORK - Three Staten Island men, riled by Barack Obama's victory, spent election night hunting down black people to beat up and yelled insults about the president-elect, federal prosecutors said yesterday.

The men beat a Liberian immigrant teenager, pushed a black man to the ground, and drove their car over a white man they thought was black, according to the indictment.

Ralph Nicoletti, 18, Michael Contreras, 18, and Brian Carranza, 21, were arrested early yesterday. All three pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to interfere with voting rights.

A fourth defendant was expected to separately plead guilty to unspecified charges, according to law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plea agreement had not been made public.

Nicoletti and Contreras were held without bail, and Carranza was released on $200,000 bond. Nicoletti and Carranza are white; Contreras is Hispanic.

Before the election night rampage, the men had gathered at a makeshift clubhouse in their Staten Island neighborhood, where they monitored the election results on the Internet.

Prosecutors said in court papers that shortly after learning of Obama's victory, making him the nation's first black president, they "decided to find African-Americans to assault."

If convicted of the federal charges, each of the men would face up to 10 years in prison.

ASSOCIATED PRESS