Oct 21, 2006 12:02 am US/Eastern
Three Mistrials Equal Victory For Gotti
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
Three mistrials added up Friday to one huge victory for second-generation mobster John A. "Junior" Gotti.
Federal prosecutors, three weeks after the latest hung jury, announced they will not pursue a fourth racketeering case against Gotti -- a decision celebrated by the son of infamous Gambino head John "Teflon Don" Gotti, along with his family and friends.
"We're very pleased," said Gotti's attorney, Charles Carnesi. "The decision wasn't unexpected, but obviously it's great to have confirmation. It's a terrific relief, and I'm very, very pleased for John, his wife and his children."
Carnesi had not yet spoken with Gotti, who said after last month's third mistrial that he wanted to take his wife and six children to the Midwest, attend college and lead a quiet life away from the region where his surname became synonymous with organized crime.
Although Gotti didn't enjoy his father's run of acquittals -- three straight before the 1992 conviction that landed him in prison until John Sr.'s death a decade later -- the three mistrials accomplished the same thing.
But more legal problems could lie ahead: Radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa promised a civil suit against Gotti over his
near-fatal June 1992 kidnapping allegedly ordered by the mob scion.
Sliwa, allegedly targeted for his incessant on-air broadsides against the elder Gotti, only survived by diving out the window of a moving cab as his blood poured from a pair of bullet wounds.
The attack was part of the racketeering indictment. Sliwa said any money earned by the suit would go to the state's Crime Victims Compensation Board.
"John Gotti was given a gift he didn't deserve -- release from federal criminal charges which included his ordering of the plot to kidnap and shoot me in 1992," said an outraged Sliwa. "He didn't deserve this break because a jury found him guilty of nearly killing me."
The jury in the third trial unanimously found that Gotti, 42, had ordered the Sliwa kidnapping and the defendant admitted to a lengthy criminal career. But that was insufficient to convict "Junior" of racketeering because the panel was split on his oft-repeated claim of quitting the mob before July 1999.
Gotti's assertion was the key to the case, because the five-year racketeering statute of limitations expired if he had stopped following in his father's illegal footsteps by that date. The latest case had a jury divided 8-4, with most believing Gotti never swore off the mob before the Sept. 27 mistrial was declared.
Family and friends who posted his $7 million bail will get their assets returned, and Gotti will be free without pending charges for the first time since he went to jail on a separate racketeering case on Oct. 18, 1999.
In Gotti's September 2005 trial, a jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of conviction. This spring, a second trial produced the same result -- although that panel favored acquittal.
U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia, whose office mounted the prosecutions of Gotti, released a three-sentence statement announcing his decision. "A retrial of defendant John A. Gotti on the pending indictment is not in the interests of justice in light of the three prior hung juries in the case," he said. "Accordingly, we submitted a proposed order which the court has signed and which ends this prosecution."
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
