Dec 9, 2005 12:16 pm US/Eastern
Judge To Gotti: No Way, Junior!
NEW YORK (AP) ―
Clearing the way for a new trial, a judge Friday rejected John A. "Junior" Gotti's request to be acquitted of racketeering because a jury had deadlocked on the charge at a trial this year.
U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin acknowledged that the way the deadlock occurred had raised questions of law that were unique but said the government was entitled to a new trial.
Scheindlin declared the mistrial in September and later freed Gotti, 41, on $7 million bond.
Gotti is charged with ordering a botched 1992 plot to abduct Curtis Sliwa, a radio show host and founder of the Guardian Angels crime-fighting group, in retaliation for his on-air rants against Gotti's father, the late mob boss John Gotti. Sliwa was shot and recovered to resume his work on the radio.
The judge said the "difficult question" of law arose because the jury was not told that unless it unanimously concluded that the defendant committed at least two related acts of racketeering, it must acquit the defendant of the charge.
"Whether a jury should be so instructed is a question for another day and inevitably a higher court," Scheindlin said.
The retrial was scheduled for Feb. 13.
Jeffrey Lichtman, a lawyer for Gotti, said he had no immediate comment.
In her ruling, Scheindlin said a retrial does not violate Gotti's right to be free from double jeopardy or being tried twice
for the same crime.
The history of law on the subject "does not support the notion that a less-than-unanimous jury is bound as a matter of law to acquit," the judge wrote.
(© 2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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