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Jun 27, 2006 9:10 am US/Eastern
'Junior' Gotti: Once Free, I'm Outta Here
He Says He'll Leave N.Y. If Cleared Of Racketeering Charges
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
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John A. "Junior" Gotti (file photo)
AP
Facing a third trial on racketeering charges, the son of late mob boss John Gotti says he would leave New York if he's exonerated.
"I can't stay in New York," John "Junior" Gotti told the Daily News. "I'm alone in this world. I'm a man without an island."
Gotti is scheduled to go on trial again in August after two previous juries deadlocked on charges that he arranged the brutal beating of Guardian Angels founder and radio host Curtis Sliwa, allegedly because of Sliwa's on-air rants against Gotti's father.
"Junior" Gotti pleaded guilty in another racketeering case in 1999, something he said his father "couldn't get past."
The elder Gotti was sentenced to life in prison for racketeering in 1992. He died in prison 10 years later.
"I took a plea and he couldn't get past it," "Junior" Gotti said. "I told him I got children. I got a son named John Gotti Jr. What can he expect to be in this life?"
But Gotti, 42, called his father "the consummate tough guy" who over time came to understand his son's obligations to his family.
"To this day, my father is a god to me," Gotti said.
Gotti's lawyers have argued that he gave up all mob activities after the 1999 guilty plea. The government says he didn't.
"There are men dying in prison for that life," Gotti said. "It's like a religion. But it's their religion, not my religion."
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
