After Prodding, Reno Delays Decision on Investigating Crown Heights Riots

Shortly before U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno was expected to announce that she would not pursue a federal investigation into the handling of the 1991 Crown Heights riots, Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) intervened and convinced her to postpone her decision, according to several knowledgeable sources.

Schumer, who represents sections of Brooklyn and Queens in Congress — but not the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn — is chairman of the House subcommittee on crime and criminal justice and is said to carry considerable clout in Reno’s office.

Reno was expected to announce her decision regarding Crown Heights on Thursday. But news leaked out Wednesday that she was going to deny requests by both Jewish and black groups for an investigation to determine whether residents’ civil rights were violated during the rioting.

Early Thursday morning, Schumer asked the attorney general to postpone her decision until she had a chance to examine more evidence from Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.

She agreed to do so, and is expected to announce her decision within several weeks. Hynes would not confirm any involvement in Reno’s postponed decision but sources in Schumer’s office confirmed his and Hynes’ involvement.

According to Schumer aide Jules Polonetsky, the Justice Department had not recently spoken with Hynes, who felt he had since come across substantial information bolstering the case for a federal investigation.

While Reno herself has given no indication of why she planned not to pursue federal prosecutions, one source close to the Justice Department said that Reno’s office “has been saying that the kind and amount of evidence they have isn’t enough to provide sufficient grounds for a federal civil rights investigation.”

LACK OF DEADLINES PROMPTS NEW APPROACH

At her news conference Thursday, Reno indicated that she changed her mind after receiving some information early that morning.

“I didn’t hear about it until this morning, and when people suggest that they have legal arguments and that there are no time deadlines and that there are no issues that would require that I make a decision today rather than wait to hear those legal arguments, and there may be some basis for those legal arguments, I hear them,” she said.

While she was planning not to pursue federal prosecution, Reno was going to be “very critical of the handling of the Lemrick Nelson case,” according to Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress.

Nelson was one of the crowd of black teenagers who surrounded Lubavitch scholar Yankel Rosenbaum on the evening of Aug. 19, 1991, some of whom were yelling “Kill the Jew.” The rioting in which Rosenbaum was engulfed broke out after a 7-year-old black boy, Gavin Cato, was killed by a car driven by a Hasidic driver.

Jews were stunned when Nelson was acquitted, in October 1992, of being one of those who fatally stabbed Rosenbaum. He had been the only person charged in the murder. Shortly after the acquittal, the Crown Heights Jewish community began calling for a federal investigation of the crime.

Hynes’ handling of the prosecution was thrashed in a comprehensive report prepared by Richard Girgenti, New York state’s director of criminal justice and made public in July.

“We’re going to utilize the next few weeks to continue in our efforts to secure a full federal investigation that will follow the evidence wherever it leads,” said Michael Miller, executive director of the New York Jewish Community Relations Council.

Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) blasted the Justice Department for delaying a decision about federal prosecution, and said Reno was “playing politics” with the injustices that remain two years after riots tore through Crown Heights.