Gotti Mistrial

Mob trials always have the most interesting headlines:

Like father, like son: 'Junior' Gotti dodges conviction

The younger Gotti pulled his own narrow escape on Tuesday when he was acquitted on a securities fraud charge, and a mistrial was declared on more serious racketeering counts including a botched and bloody kidnapping of a radio show host.

Ya Gotti believe they're all lying rats, lawyer sez

Jeffrey Lichtman called the gangsters murderous "maniacs" - and derided Sliwa as a "money-grubbing liar addicted to publicity" as he delivered closing arguments in Gotti's kidnapping and racketeering trial.

"These witnesses lied to you and they lied to you repeatedly."

JUNIOR'S LAST JAB

Defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman claimed Gotti renounced the mob and defied his father when he pleaded guilty to unrelated racketeering charges in April 1999 — and then harkened back to the secretly taped words of the late John "Dapper Don" Gotti.
. . . .
Prosecutors normally get the final word at trial, but Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin gave Lichtman the rare chance to respond in light of Gotti's unusual defense, which requires him to actively prove he renounced the Mafia.

'JUNIOR' GOTTI CHICKENS OUT OF TESTIFYING

"Your honor, if I may. I'm going to follow my head and not my heart, and I'm going to opt out on taking the witness stand," Gotti, rising to his feet after a 40-minute huddle with his lawyers, told Manhattan federal Judge Shira Scheindlin.

COURTS TREATED JACKO BETTER

the feds, for 14 months in 2003 and 2004, both in the lawyers room and visiting room in Raybrook prison, secretly taped Junior.

Despite the fact that those tapes were made by the feds for the expressed purpose of nailing Junior, they have successfully blocked the defense from using them.
. . . .
"The thing is," said sister Angel, "the jury will never hear John angrily saying he no more wanted anything to do with the life and will believe all the stuff the informants are saying about him."

Another Wiseguy Sings At Junior Gotti Trial

"John was very, very good to me," DiLeonardo, 50, said while testifying for the government against Gotti at a mob conspiracy trial. "I love John."

We just don't get that kind of coverage down here in Virginia.