The US government has decided not to seek a fifth racketeering trial against John “Junior” Gotti, son of the notorious Gambino family crime boss.
After four trials and a series of hung juries government prosecutors have given up. The “Teflon Son” of the “Teflon Don” is free to get on with his life.
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.
The John “Senior” Gotti escaped conviction in a series of trials in the 1980s and early 1990s, gaining him the nickname “Teflon Don” because the charges wouldn’t stick to him. Now, aside from being sentenced to five years in ’99 after pleading guilty –over his father’s objections– to racketeering, “Junior” –who swears he left the business in the 90′s– is following the same path.
