Sep 13, 2006 11:14 pm US/Eastern
Judge Throws Out Gotti Racketeering Charges, Again
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
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File Photo: John A. "Junior" Gotti is back in court on this third racketeering trial in a year.
AP
For a second time, a judge Wednesday tossed out new racketeering charges brought against John "Junior" Gotti, finding the evidence introduced at his trial insufficient to support a conviction.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin dealt a setback to the government's case when she decided it had not proven that the source of money in several of Gotti's properties stemmed from alleged loansharking or construction industry extortion.
The government brought the new charges several months ago in a bid to boost its case against Gotti after two juries in the last year deadlocked on racketeering charges against him.
With the new charges, the government tried to prove that Gotti continued to benefit from Gambino family money even after he said he quit the family when he pleaded guilty to charges in another racketeering case in 1999. The defense successfully convinced most jurors at a trial that ended in May that Gotti had quit the mob, triggering a five-year statute of limitations that would nullify the current charges.
The new strategy by the government did have its benefits, though, because the judge decided that the jury could consider the
new evidence regarding Gotti's finances even though it could not use the evidence to convict him on new racketeering charges.
Scheindlin had thrown out the new racketeering charges just before the retrial began but she changed her mind and reinstated them days later.
Lauren McDonough, a spokeswoman for prosecutors, said the govenment had no comment on Scheindlin's ruling Wednesday.
Gotti still faces a racketeering charge related to other alleged crimes, including an allegation that he ordered two 1992 attacks on radio show host and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa in retaliation for Sliwa's on-air rants against his father, John Gotti. The elder Gotti died in prison in 2002, 10 years after he was sentenced to life for a racketeering conviction.
In a new twist, prosecutors declined to call Sliwa as a witness at the current trial. The defense called him instead, concentrating on Sliwa's recounting of six bogus incidents he reported in the 1970s and 1980s to police or the media to publicize the Guardian Angels.
Closing arguments were slated to begin as early as Thursday.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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