Nov 10, 2009 11:50 am US/Eastern
Gotti Says He'll Attend His NY Trial After All
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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There was unprecedented turmoil in the John A. Gotti trial on Wednesday, November 3, caused by his mother, Victoria Gotti.
AP
John "Junior" Gotti has decided he'll attend his trial after all.
The federal trial in Manhattan was temporarily halted Tuesday after Gotti told U.S. marshals that he didn't want to be there.
The reason was not immediately clear. The defense lawyer said it was news to him.
The judge called a break so Charles Carnesi could talk to his client. Then Gotti showed up at the courthouse and changed into a suit.
The jury was not aware of the glitch.
Carnesi was scheduled to resume his closing arguments.
It's Gotti's fourth racketeering trial in as many years. His father, former Gambino boss John Gotti, died in prison in 2002.
Last week there was unprecedented turmoil in Gotti trial.
As Judge Kevin Castel was explaining what he was going to do about two jurors who had become a problem (the jury was not in the courtroom), it was clear he was about to conclude that two women were going to be taken off the jury.
But just as he was going to make that point, Gotti's mother, Victoria Gotti, jumped up from her front-row seat and screamed, "This is a f****** railroad! There's no justice!"
Daughters Victoria and Angel and another woman, a family friend, grabbed the mother, and put their hands over her mouth, but she struggled free as court officers rushed in. "There's no f****** justice! They're the real gangsters! They're f****** liars! F*** you!"
From the defense table, her son John turned around and pleaded "Ma, don't!" Judge Castel looked on cooly while Victoria was both led and dragged out cursing and yelling.
Bad blood had been building between the two jurors for weeks: Juror #11 had written the judge a letter about #7's allegedly antagonistic behavior. The judge had tried to defuse things yesterday by giving the jury a large jar of strawberry Twizzlers, telling them to take out their frustrations by chewing or biting the Twizzlers. But after re-interviewing each of the two jurors today, the judge reluctantly admitted it wasn't working. He said he found #11 more believable, and that #7 was probably lying about wanting to get along.
But Castel said he was worried about how their presence might affect deliberations, and so he was excusing them both. He also chided the government for wanting him to press each juror with tougher questions that he said would cross the line, calling the government's request "to be charitable...naïve."
The reason why Victoria Gotti went off is that the consensus in the courtroom had been that Juror #7 may have been leaning towards the Gotti side. And, that if both were kept, there may have been a mistrial. Which could have meant the new Attorney General might have told his attorney in New York, "Can you really justify a fifth trial?" That maybe, the mother hoped, the whole thing would be dropped.
(© 2009 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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