The US government has decided not to seek a fifth racketeering trial against John "Junior" Gotti, son of the notorious Gambino family crime boss who also was noted – for a time – for avoiding conviction.
US attorney Preet Bharara issued a statement yesterday saying prosecutors had decided not to seek another trial "in light of the circumstances".
Gotti, 45, who insists he left organised crime a decade ago, has been free on $2m (£1.2m) bail since a jury failed to reach a verdict on murder and racketeering charges on 1 December last year. The jurors deliberated for 11 days before telling the judge they were deadlocked, forcing a declaration of a mistrial.
It was the fourth time in four years a jury had failed to reach a verdict on Gotti. He was tried three times on racketeering charges for an alleged plot to kidnap and murder Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa in 2005 and 2006, but they also ended in hung juries. Those prosecutions began as Gotti was completing a five-year sentence he received after pleading guilty in 1999 to federal charges of racketeering, including bribery, extortion and fraud.
Seth Ginsberg, one of Gotti's lawyers, called the move to drop the case the "right decision" and added: "I hope that they stick to it this time and let John and his family be at peace."
Gotti's latest trial was punctuated by outbursts by his mother and once by Gotti himself. At one point, Gotti shouted to John Alite, the star prosecution witness: "You're a punk! You're a dog! You're a dog! You always were a dog your whole life, you punk dog."
At one point, when the jury was not in the room, Gotti's mother, Victoria, screamed out to her son: "They're railroading you! They're doing to you what they did to your father!"
The trials have enshrined Gotti as a legendary defendant in the mould of his late father, John, known as "the Teflon Don" after he escaped conviction in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Gotti Sr, also known as "the Dapper Don" for his stylish suits, was for several years the most notorious mobster in the United States. He was finally convicted of racketeering in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2002.
His son was accused of ordering a kidnapping and attempted murder plot against Sliwa, founder of an anti-crime group, who had criticised Gotti Sr on a radio talk show. Sliwa was first beaten with a baseball bat in 1992 and was later kidnapped, shot and nearly killed.
Federal prosecutors in Tampa, Florida, brought the latest case in 2008, but it was returned to Manhattan by a judge who said he was left with the "unmistakable and disquieting impression" that the government had shopped for a trial location where it might finally win. Prosecutors also attempted to tie Gotti to multiple murders this time, in addition to the allegations about Sliwa.