You could say he made her an offer she couldn’t refuse.
Peter and Catherine Gotti settled their contentious divorce case after the jailed mob boss offered his estranged wife most of his city pension and sole control of the couple’s Howard Beach home, lawyers said yesterday. “I’m very happy it’s over with,” said Catherine, 63, following a court appearance in Queens supreme court. “I’m happy that I don’t have to go back there.”
Peter, 64, wasn’t present at the brief session before Justice Sidney Strauss yesterday because he’s serving a 9 1/2-year federal racketeering sentence.
The accused Gambino chief is also set to go on trial this week in Manhattan on charges he conspired to kill mob turncoat Salvatore “Sammy Bull” Gravano.
The divorce agreement – which will become official when paperwork is completed early next year – calls for Peter to fork over three quarters of his $1,920-a-month disability pension from the city Sanitation Department while he’s in prison.
If and when he’s released, he and his ex-wife will split that pension 50-50. They’ll do the same with his Social Security benefits, which are on hold as long as Peter is incarcerated. The third item in the negotiations was the couple’s 75 percent share of the $600,000 Howard Beach house they’ve lived in for 20 years.
In the deal, Peter gives Catherine sole control over that share – with the stipulation that their seven grandkids inherit a 20 percent stake in it upon her death. “I get to keep a roof over my head,” said Catherine.
Still, Catherine said she wouldn’t give up the receptionist job she took several months ago after Peter cut her off from his city pension. “I still have to work,” she said. “But I’d rather be working anyway.”
Peter’s lawyer, Donald Madeo, indicated that his client was also satisfied.
“It was never his intention to put her on the street,” he said. “From the start of this action, he wanted to do something that was fair. His only desire was to leave a positive legacy, and we believe we have achieved that.”
Peter filed for divorce last year after his wife found love letters from Marjorie Alexander, a 43-year-old Long Island woman with whom he was having an affair. Alexander killed herself in April after her letters to a federal judge begging for leniency on behalf of Peter became public.