Jul 1, 2005 10:33 pm US/Eastern
Judge: Junior Gotti's Jailhouse Rants Not Evidence
NEW YORK (AP) ―
A jury will not hear profane portions of jailhouse rants about the mob by the son of John Gotti at his trial next month, a federal judge ruled Friday.
John A. "Junior" Gotti, 40, faces charges he arranged a failed hit on a radio talk show host.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled the secretly recorded conversations between the younger Gotti and his former lawyer could not be presented as evidence of his membership in the Gambino organized crime family.
The judge suggested prosecutors wanted to use excerpts of the tapes -- on which the defendant delivers self-pitying soliloquies about growing up as a Gotti -- solely to remind jurors that he is the son of a notorious mob boss.
"The government should not be permitted to take advantage of that fact," she said at a pretrial hearing in federal court in Manhattan.
Gotti's lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said the ruling bolstered his client's case. "You can't convict him because of his father's name," Lichtman said.
The tapes were recorded in 2002 and 2003 while Gotti was serving time for a 1999 racketeering conviction. The judge said if put before a jury, the outbursts could create a "real danger of unfair prejudice because of foul language."
Gotti's lawyers have sought to portray him as long-detached from the Gambino family he allegedly once led after his father was sent to prison for life in 1992 on a racketeering conviction. The elder Gotti died in prison in 2002.
The government has accused the younger Gotti and two soldiers with the Gambino organized crime family of conspiring to kill Curtis Sliwa in 1992 because he bashed the elder Gotti on a radio show.
(© 2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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