Mob boss Gotti's son released on $7 million bail

NEW YORK - John A. "Junior" Gotti, son of late mob boss John Gotti, has been released from prison on $7 million bail and began more than four months of house arrest before facing another racketeering trial early next year.

The release of Gotti, 41, who has renounced his ties with organised crime, came after jurors were unable to reach a verdict last week on charges including extortion, loan sharking and the attempted kidnapping of Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels civilian anti-crime group.

"I am thankful to finally be reunited with my wife and five children," Gotti, who was imprisoned for more than five years, said in a statement. "I did my time in prison and have moved on with my life. I hope and pray that everyone will try to understand that my past is behind me and to please focus on my future and what I do from here on out." Gotti was imprisoned after pleading guilty to racketeering charges in a separate case in 1999 and was due to be released from prison last year before the latest charges were brought against him.

He secured his bail in US District Court in Manhattan before returning to his Long Island home. The bail request was granted on Monday by a federal judge who warned Gotti not to contact a list of witnesses, including mob turncoats, who testified during his trial. He also will be subject to electronic monitoring.

The judge said Gotti could face some of the same charges at the next trial, which is expected to begin in February.

During the trial, prosecutors said Gotti became "street boss" of the Gambino crime family in the 1990s after his father, called the "Dapper Don" for his stylish suits, went to prison, where he died of cancer in 2002.

Although Gotti did not testify, mob turncoats gave colorful accounts of bloody shootings and beatings, while Sliwa told the jury of being shot while sitting in a New York taxi cab in 1992 in an attack prosecutors said Gotti ordered after Sliwa criticised his father on a radio show.

- REUTERS