Crown Heights Trials: 1992 & 1997

Although Nelson could not be tried again on the murder charge, over the next year, Hasidic leaders and Yankel Rosenbaum's brother, Norman, who made many trips from his home in Australia, pressed local politicians to seek justice. In Washington, D.C., Senator Alfonse D'Amato and Congressman Charles E. Schumer worked to pass a Senate appropriations bill that carried an amendment stating "… the United States Department of Justice should investigate whether any Federal criminal civil rights laws were violated as a result of (1) the murder of Yankel Rosenbaum on August 19, 1991, and (2) the circumstances surrounding the murder and accompanying riots in Crown Heights." The bill was unanimously approved.

As a result, Attorney General Janet Reno launched an investigation into the affair, and on August 10, 1994, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York charged Nelson with violating civil rights, stating that he and others "did willfully injure, intimidate and interfere with … Yankel Rosenbaum, an Orthodox Jew, because of his religion and because he was enjoying the facilities provided and administered by a subdivision of the State of New York, namely, the public streets provided and administered by the City of New York, and bodily injury to and the death of Yankel Rosenbaum did result."

The charge included Charles Price, 43, who had been identified as the man who touched off the riots by shouting, "Let's go to Kingston Avenue and get a Jew!"

Lemrick Nelson was found guilty of violating the civil rights of Yankel Rosenbaum during the riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. (AP/Wide World Photos)