New York Local News

NEW YORK (CBS) ― John "Junior" Gotti walked out of a federal courthouse in Manhattan a free man Tuesday night after the jury in his racketeering and murder case came back deadlocked again today, forcing the judge to declare another mistrial – the fourth in five years.

Gotti was granted freedom on $2 million bail after the jury deadlocked on charges against him. Federal Judge Kevin Castel said Gotti could be freed Tuesday when he pledges $1.6 million in property to support his bail.

Will there be another trial? One juror said it should stop now.

"I don't think there should be another trial. I think this is it. He's been through, they say three already, this is the fourth one, I think that enough is enough," one juror told CBS 2.

Certainly, the way the jury voted on the three counts should give the government pause. Count 1, racketeering conspiracy: the vote was 7-5 to acquit. Count 2, a murder: a 6-6 split. Count 3, another murder, 7-5 to acquit.

To avoid a hung jury, they would have had to be unanimous.

The panel deliberated for 11 days before finally saying they were hung, but actually, it was longer than that: deliberations began November 4. Among other delays was a five-day break for Thanksgiving. The judge declared a mistrial about a quarter after three.

Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, who says Gotti ordered him kidnapped and shot, was not happy:

"I'm hoping he'll follow in his father's footsteps: triple-life without parole and then goes straight to hell without an asbestos suit, and join his father in the bowels of hell," Sliwa told reporters outside the court house.

But the bottom line is that once again, John A. Gotti walks out of a federal courtroom. He was not acquitted. Still, his family will take the outcome.

The 45-year-old was being tried for the fourth time in five years, and all three previous trials ended in hung juries, which meant each time, Gotti was off the hook. But each time, the government retried the case. The family said it had become more like an obsession with the feds, triggered, the family said, by their hatred of his father, and that notorious last name.

"They're desperate. They have fought, even for the government, I'm shocked, and is shrouded so much by the last name. It's so much, 'Well it's a witch hunt, let's get him, it's a Gotti, it's a Gotti,'" his sister Victoria told CBS 2 during deliberations.

The government's case really rested on one star witness, John Alite, an old Gotti friend who turned informant. But the jury didn't seem to buy Alite's testimony.

"For the most part almost the entire jury didn't believe the star witness. He wasn't credible at all," said juror Paul Peragine.

Now the question is: will Eric Holder's justice department, the new regime in Washington, will they want to try Gotti again? After four failures? Some observers think Holder and the FBI are now focused on terrorism and white collar crime.

But there are some in New York who do not want to let Gotti go.

"I think they'd be stupid. They'd really be stupid. Considering the jury, verdict, a split right down the middle, if not they were more for John than against, it's just ridiculous," daughter Victoria said Tuesday. "A fifth trial, it's gonna be a fifth hung. How many times are we going to do this? Ten times?"

The Gotti women have watched as first, John J. Gotti, the boss, went to prison for life, where he died; his brother Gene Gotti was also put away; brother Peter Gotti, allegedly part of a commission running the mob while John was in prison, was also sent behind bars; and then the target turned full circle towards the son, "Junior." In an exclusive interview, the matriarch of the family, also named Victoria, talked about life from their perspective.

"My son screwed up a lot, I'm the first one to admit it," she said. "He paid his price, he's made a lot of mistakes. He paid for it. He went to jail for seven years. I know in my heart he's done."

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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