CITYWIDE

JUDGE DECLARES MISTRIAL IN GOTTI RACKETEERING CASE

The judge in the John A. “Junior” Gotti racketeering case yesterday declared a mistrial on charges he ordered the botched kidnapping of a radio show host, and she said she was willing to free the jailed scion of the Gambino organized-crime family on bail. After eight days of deliberations, jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked on all but one count. They acquitted Gotti, 41, of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. That verdict will stand if there is a retrial. The U.S. district judge, Shira Scheindlin, declared a mistrial on the remaining counts, which included an allegation that Gotti plotted the kidnapping of Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels crime-fighting group. She discharged the jury after it indicated for the second straight day that it was unable to reach a decision about the bulk of the case.

Notations on a verdict sheet filled out by the 12 jurors showed they had deadlocked at 11-1 in favor of convicting Gotti on extortion and racketeering charges. The sheet also showed 10 jurors thought the government had proved he was a conspirator in the Sliwa scheme. After prosecutors suggested they would seek to retry the son of the late mob boss John Gotti, defense attorneys asked he be released on bail. Scheindlin said she was likely to grant the request in the coming days, drawing applause from Gotti’s supporters. “Now, I think the man is entitled to bail,” Judge Scheindlin said, adding that she would likely restrict his movements when he is set free. “After 5 years, the time has come.”

– Associated Press

COUNCIL TO VOTE ON SUSPENDING ALT. SIDE PARKING FOR HINDU HOLIDAY

The City Council’s transportation committee passed a resolution adding the first Hindu holiday to its list of religious observances that warrant the suspension of alternate side parking. If eventually passed by the council, the Festival of Diwali would be the 34th religious or legal holiday and the 40th scheduled time during the year when street cleaners are kept from sweeping the streets. The Department of Sanitation opposed the resolution, which passed the committee unanimously. Alternate side parking would be suspended on the day, usually in early November, when the goddess Lakshmi is celebrated.

– Special to the Sun

BROOKLYN

NORMAN ADMITS TO FINANCING TWO CAMPAIGNS IN ADDITION TO HIS OWN

Brooklyn County Leader Clarence Norman Jr. was financing two campaigns for a state committeeperson in addition to his own re-election campaign for the State Assembly in 2000, he testified in his own defense yesterday afternoon.

Mr. Norman said that in 2000, he offered to finance the re-election campaigns of Shirley Patterson and William Boone III, both of whom he had previously appointed to seats in the state committee, because neither had the “wherewithal” to stage effective campaigns on their own.

If the Committee to Re-Elect Clarence Norman Jr. had been officially authorized to make expenses on behalf of Ms. Patterson and Mr. Boone, then the $7,493 in contributions the committee received from a lobbyist’s corporate and political accounts in 2000 would have fallen within the legal limit for contributions, an election lawyer, Henry Berger, testified.

But the committee treasurer, Carmen Martinez, had specifically indicated that the committee was not authorized to make expenditures on behalf of those two candidates.

“Treasurers make mistakes in their filing all the time,” who was a campaign treasurer for many years, Mr. Berger, said. He suggested that the committee’s “unauthorized” status did not reflect Mr. Norman’s intention to support other candidates.

– Special to the Sun

QUEENS

MAN’S LEGS SEVERED IN BOTCHED SUICIDE ATTEMPT A man’s legs were amputated by a subway after he attempted suicide by jumping from a platform in Queens and was run over by a Manhattan-bound G train yesterday, police said. The man, who police said is approximately 50 years old, threw himself in front the train at the Grand Avenue station yesterday morning.

– Special to the Sun