NEW YORK-
A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the mob case against John A. “Junior” Gotti–the third time in a year a jury deadlocked over his claim that he quit the family business.
“It’s enough now. They got to let go,” Gotti told reporters, in urging prosecutors to drop the racketeering case so that could move to the Midwest with his family and go to college. “If they let us alone, I’ll leave. I’ll take my family and I’ll go.”
Prosecutors did not immediately ask for a fourth trial for the 42-year-old Gotti, who has become a fixture in federal court in the past year as the government tried three times to prove he has followed in father John Gotti’s footsteps.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin declared the mistrial, and told jurors it was “not your failure” and acknowledged “the case has its difficulties.”
A relieved Gotti hugged his brother Peter and other supporters, then wiped his eyes. “It was a tough one,” Gotti said. “This one drained the life from me.”
If convicted, Gotti could have gotten up to 30 years in prison. He is free on $7 million bail.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia said, “We are disappointed by today’s outcome.”
Three anonymous jurors who spoke to reporters afterward said the jury had agreed unanimously that Gotti was responsible for two 1992 attacks on Guardian Angels founder and radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa, including a shooting that nearly killed him.
The finding was not enough to convict him of racketeering because the jury could not agree on whether Gotti had quit the Gambino family by July 1999. If he did, in fact, quit the Mafia by that date, the statute of limitations for prosecuting him would have expired.
The jurors said eight found he had not quit; four believed he had quit.
Prosecutors maintained the Gambino family targeted Sliwa to stop him from badmouthing Gotti’s father on talk radio.
Sliwa said he was left with “the most miserable feeling in the world,” while Gotti was “the luckiest person in the world.”
Gotti’s lawyers argued the second-generation mobster had years ago severed his ties to organized crime and had no role in the Sliwa attack.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
