Accused NY mob boss avoids conviction for third time

John Gotti

NEW YORK - Accused mob boss John "Junior" Gotti eluded conviction for a third time -- matching his late father's record -- when a federal judge today declared a mistrial after jurors were deadlocked.

Prosecutors did not say whether they would seek a fourth trial on racketeering charges. Two previous trials were voided when juries failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

Gotti, 42, had faced up to 30 years in prison on charges including that he ordered the beating and kidnapping of Curtis Sliwa, founder of New York's Guardian Angels anti-crime patrols.

Gotti had faced four counts including conspiracy, racketeering, conspiracy to extort the construction industry and witness tampering.

After the verdict was read, Gotti sat with his head bowed, rubbing his eyes and face. Visibly emotional, he then turned and embraced his family.

"It's enough now, they gotta let us go," Gotti told reporters afterwards, referring to the multiple prosecutions against him and his late father. "Just let me go and let me move on with my life. Let us go, he's dead."

US Attorney Michael Garcia said he was disappointed by the outcome and would inform the court "in the very near future" about how he planned to proceed.

In all three trials, Gotti's defence centred on a claim he quit the Gambino crime family after taking control from his father, John J Gotti -- known as 'Teflon Don' for three times escaping conviction in separate cases between 1984 and 1990.

John J Gotti was eventually convicted of racketeering charges including accusations he was involved in five murders. He died in prison in 2002.

During "Junior" Gotti's latest trial, which began in mid-August, his defence claimed he withdrew from mob life before mid-1999, allowing him protection under a five-year statute of limitations under federal racketeering laws.

Gotti's defence argued the "heir apparent" visited his father in prison to tell him he wanted to plead guilty to separate racketeering charges after he realized the glamour of mob life was a facade hiding dishonour and deceit.

Prosecutors called Gotti's "withdrawal defence" a clever charade he invented after being sent to prison on the unrelated charges, knowing a new indictment was imminent.

They said while in prison, he continued to engage in organized crime, passing on messages and receiving money from construction industry rackets.

As proof, they played new FBI audio tapes of Gotti's prison conversations with visitors in 2003 and 2004, including one in which he threatened to punish Gambino family hierarchy who demoted him "with two padlocks in my hands and I will crack their skulls, I promise you that," according to transcripts.

The trial gave insight into the Gambino crime family, one of New York's "five families," complete with the testimonies of mob turncoats, a member of the Aryan brotherhood prison gang and the fast-talking Sliwa.

Sliwa testified to being shot at point-blank range in the back of a New York taxi -- rigged so he couldn't escape -- in 1992 after criticizing Gotti's father on his radio show.

But the secret prison tapes shed the most light on Gotti, whose conversations contained familiar Mafia themes of machismo and loyalty -- as well as his relationship with his father.

"So much treachery, Steve," he said to a friend. "My father couldn't have loved me, to push me into this life. I had a good life ... I mean, I know -- I know my father loved me, but I gotta question how much. He put me with all these wolves."

- REUTERS