Mar 10, 2006 4:21 pm US/Eastern
Mistrial Declared In 'Junior' Gotti Case
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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John "Junior" Gotti (File)
AP
Gambino crime family scion John "Junior" Gotti dodged a legal bullet for the second time in eighth months this afternoon when a federal jury deadlocked on racketeering charges against him.
Federal prosecutors agreed to a mistrial, but said they intended to try him for a third time.
U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin has yet to declare a mistrial from the bench, although she had earlier indicated that she felt further deliberations would not produce a verdict.
The decision by Assistant U-S Attorney Michael McGovern came after jurors - in just their third day of deliberations - sent out a note that further deliberations would be fruitless.
"We are completely DEADLOCKED," read the note sent to U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin. "More time will not change the views in this room."
Prosecutors had asked Scheindlin to let the jury spent the weekend away from deliberations, and return Monday for a new start. Last September, a mistrial was declared when another jury considering the same charges against Gotti could not reach a decision.
The jurors began deliberating late Wednesday afternoon.
Gotti, 42, was charged with racketeering counts that included ordering a pair of attacks on New York radio host Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, in 1992. The second attack almost killed Sliwa, and authorities charged that Gotti ordered Sliwa's kidnapping to silence the radio host's daily verbal assaults on the Gotti's late father, Gambino boss John Gotti.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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