Brother of Late Mob Boss Gotti Convicted
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By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - In a case featuring the testimony of action-film star Steven Seagal, the brother of late mob boss John Gotti was found guilty Monday of racketeering and other charges accusing him of quietly assuming control of the Gambino crime family.
The jury deliberated six days in federal court in Brooklyn before convicting Peter Gotti and six co-defendants, including two who tried to extort up to $3 million from Seagal.
Gotti, 63, was the star defendant in the far-reaching mob case alleging a campaign of extortion stretching from the city's waterfront to Hollywood. Prosecutors accused him of pocketing thousands of dollars from various schemes.
In addition to racketeering, Gotti also was found guilty of conspiracy and multiple counts of money laundering. The jury cleared him of two money-laundering counts.
Another brother, Richard V. Gotti, and a nephew, Richard G. Gotti, also were convicted of racketeering and other charges.
Gotti stared straight ahead as the jury read the verdicts. Afterward, he turned to reporters and complained, "It's easy to convict a Gotti. All you have to have is the name."
His lawyer, Gerald Shargel, told the jury that the government had "failed completely and utterly and miserably to put any evidence before you that Peter Gotti is the acting boss of anything."
Shargel accused prosecutors of using his unassuming client as a stand-in for his notorious brother, who died of cancer last June.
U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf called the verdict "a historic day in law enforcement's fight against organized crime."
The case stemmed from an investigation aimed at loosening the Mafia's grip on New York's waterfront. Authorities later learned of the plot against Seagal.
Seagal, the star of such action films as "Under Siege" and "Exit Wounds," testified that the mobsters demanded payoffs during a meeting at a steakhouse arranged by his former business partner who is under indictment in a separate case. Afterward, the partner told him, "If you would have said the wrong thing, they would have killed you," Seagal said.
On Gotti's watch, a violent Gambino crew used threats to assume control of local chapters of the International Longshoremen's Association, prosecutors said. The family then rigged union elections and secured the award of a lucrative union health service contract for a mob-controlled company.
During a six-week trial, prosecutors presented a series of surveillance photos and tapes of known gangsters paying homage and cash to Gotti, a former sanitation worker who allegedly became acting boss of the Gambinos in the late 1990s.
The tapes proved Gotti was "not only a mobster, but a mob leader," Assistant U.S. Attorney Katya Jestin said in closing arguments.
Peter Gotti allegedly became the third Gotti to take charge of the Gambinos, one of the city's oldest crime families, when his brother John fell ill in federal prison. John Gotti's son, John "Junior" Gotti, was convicted of bribery and extortion.
John Gotti earned the nickname "Teflon Don" after a series of acquittals on murder charges. He was serving a life term for racketeering and murder when he died.
