The federal government announced Wednesday that it has decided not to seek a fifth racketeering trial against John “Junior” Gotti.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a one-paragraph statement: “In light of the circumstances, the government has decided not to proceed with the prosecution of John A. Gotti.” The prosecutor said the request had been approved by the trial judge.
On Dec. 1, the fourth trial for Gotti in five years ended with a deadlocked jury so evenly divided after 11 days of deliberations that authorities said privately almost immediately that it was unlikely that prosecutors would proceed.
Gotti, the son of the notorious Gambino crime family boss, has been free on $2 million bail.
Gotti has insisted he left organized crime in the late 1990s.
Seth Ginsberg, one of his lawyers, called it the “right decision.”
“I hope that they stick to it this time and let John and his family be at peace,” Ginsberg added.
Three trials in 2005 and 2006 also had ended in hung juries, after the government presented evidence accusing Gotti of ordering a kidnapping and attempted murder plot against Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.
In the latest trial, prosecutors for the first time attempted to tie Gotti to multiple murders, in addition to the claims about Sliwa.
The repeated hung juries left some comparing Gotti to his father, the late John “Dapper Don” Gotti. The elder Gotti was convicted of racketeering in 1991. He was sentenced to life in prison and died in prison in 2002.