Three New York teenagers have been charged with federal civil rights charges in connection with election night racial violence in which attackers shouted "Obama."
The three youths were charged with conspiracy to interfere with voting rights in an indictment unsealed in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday, and scheduled to be arraigned later that day.
The indictment says the defendants -- Ralph Nicoletti, Michael Contreras and Brian Carranza -- "did knowingly and intentionally conspire to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate African American citizens of Staten Island..." of their constitutional rights.
The names of their lawyers could not immediately be determined.
Authorities said the most serious of the Staten Island attacks was on a 17-year-old Liberian native. He was bludgeoned with a pipe and an expandable police baton, while the attackers yelled "Obama!"
