Jury in Gotti Trial Says it’s Deadlocked; Judge Says Try Again
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NEW YORK (AP) – A jury deliberating the fate of John “Junior” Gotti at his third racketeering trial told the judge Tuesday it was unable to agree on a verdict. The judge asked the jury to try again.
The jury released a note after noon saying it had only been able to agree on one of two acts it must decide before reaching a verdict on the racketeering charge.
“We have been unable to reach a unanimous verdict on all charges,” the jury said. “We feel we are deadlocked.”
From the start, the jury has sought evidence aimed at deciding whether Mr. Gotti quit the Gambino crime family before July 1991, as he claims. If so, a five-year statute of limitations would have expired before prosecutors brought new racketeering charges in 2004.
The jury was in its sixth day of deliberations. It had asked for some evidence to be read back as it deliberated over the last week, but the panel has not been particularly noisy in a courthouse where jurors can sometimes be heard shouting at one another.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin encouraged the jurors to give it another try, saying the case would likely have to be tried again and it was unlikely that another jury would be better able to judge the evidence. Two previous juries in the last year wound up deadlocked, with resulting mistrials.
“I know it’s been long but there’s still no hurry,” she said. “I ask you with great respect that you continue your deliberations and I await your word whatever it may be.”
Prosecutors say the jury should conclude Mr. Gotti continued to receive mob money after 1999 and thus was part of a racketeering conspiracy.
Defense lawyers say Mr. Gotti paid a large fine when he pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge in another case in 1999 and was permitted to keep the property and businesses which remained, regardless of where the money originated.
Mr. Gotti has also been accused of ordering two 1992 attacks on radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa, including one in which Mr. Sliwa was shot twice before he escaped out the window of a car.
Prosecutors have said Mr. Gotti was retaliating for on-air attacks against his father, John Gotti, who was sentenced in 1992 to life in prison without parole. He died in prison in 2002.
If convicted, Mr. Gotti could face up to 30 years in prison. He is free on $7 million bail.
