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[h1]Another guilty plea in Staten Island Election Night rampage[/h1] [h3]by Staten Island Advance[/h3]
[h3]Monday February 02, 2009, 1:57 PM[/h3]
Advance file photoRalph Nicoletti, 18, of Fort Wadsworth, leaves Stapleton Criminal Court after his arraignment in November.
A teen from Staten Island's Fort Wadsworth community today became the fourth suspect to plead guilty in connection with an Election night rampage that targeted black people on the North Shore.
"I was angry. I was drunk," said Ralph Nicoletti, 18, today in Brooklyn Federal Court, while admitting assaulting three individuals who he believed to be African American in retaliation to President Obama's historic election on Nov. 4.
Under the plea agreement, Nicoletti will serve 12 years in prison and five years of supervised release, though the final determination on his sentence will be made by District Judge Carol B. Amon on March 23.
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If she rules Nicoletti should face more time, he will be given the opportunity to withdraw his plea.
Bryan Garaventa, 18, of Rosebank; Brian Carranza, 21, of Port Richmond; and Michael Contreras, 18, of Fort Wadsworth have already reached plea agreements with prosecutors. Each pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to interfere with voting rights. Nicoletti also was indicted on the same charge.
Carranza, Garaventa and Nicoletti are white; Contreras is Hispanic. Authorities allege the defendants, members of the so-called "Rosebank Krew," kicked off their spree in Stapleton by beating Alie Kamara, a 17-year-old Liberian immigrant, with a metal pipe and collapsible police baton. The teen, who was walking from a friend's house after watching the election results on TV, managed to escape and run home.
The defendants then drove to Port Richmond, where, authorities said, they pushed a black man to the ground and shouted at a Latino man.
Before leaving the area, the defendants allegedly drove their car over a white man they mistook for black. Ronald Forte, 38, was in a coma for 45 days but survived, albeit with brain damage.
Nicoletti today said he was driving the car and first intended to move close enough to Forte for one of his passengers to strike him with a pipe. Nicoletti said he changed his mind the last minute and decided to run down Forte on his own.
"It was not my intent to kill him, it was my intent to injure him," Nicoletti said.
Besides the federal count, Garaventa and Nicoletti face state charges.
and how you gonna try to run down someone in your car and expect to only "injure him," and not kill him?? please.
at these people.
