Legal Commentary

John Gotti, Jr. Charged With 1990 Murder

By Jeralyn

Update: No bail for Gotti.

Looks like I'll be wearing my "Free John Gotti" t-shirt to bed tonight. The Government just can't get enough bites at the apple when it comes to the son of the notorius, deceased mobster.

John A. Gotti has been charged with conspiracy for his role in a sprawling cocaine trafficking operation and in three mob-related killings in 1980s and ’90s, the United States attorney’s office in Tampa, Fla., announced on Tuesday....Mr. Gotti has been prosecuted four times before on charges related to organized crime; he pleaded guilty in the first case but contested the later charges, resulting in three mistrials.

More...

A little history:

In September 2005, after a six-week federal trial that included charges that he ordered the June 1992 kidnapping of Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels and WABC radio talk-show host, a divided jury failed to reach verdicts on three charges — kidnapping, racketeering and extortion and conspiracy — and voted not guilty on a fourth charge of securities fraud.

A retrial on the three unresolved charges ended in a mistrial in March 2006 when, after hearing from more than a dozen witnesses, the jury deadlocked for a second time.

Prosecutors made a third attempt in September 2006, but after a six-week trial, jurors again failed to reach a verdict, though they said they believed Mr. Gotti was guilty of organizing the kidnapping of Mr. Sliwa. At that point, the prosecutors, lacking any new evidence, chose not to try him a fourth time in the case.

More background here, here, here, and here.

This will be another trial with testimony from thugs turned snitches and another colossal waste of taxpayer money.

Note: The t-shirt refers to John Gotti, Sr. -- I got it at the Feast of San Gennaro festival around 1995.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 05, 2008 (boomark / email).