N.Y.’s Reputed Mafia Boss Acquitted of Racketeering : Jury Clears Gotti, Six Lieutenants

John Gotti, the “dapper don” accused of heading the nation’s most powerful Mafia family, was acquitted today along with six lieutenants of a series of racketeering and conspiracy charges.

The verdict, a stunning blow to the government, makes Gotti the only reputed leader of the city’s five Mafia families to escape federal prosecutors’ yearlong attack on organized crime.

After the verdict, Gotti, known for his styled hair, expensive suits and suave manner, jubilantly grabbed his lawyer, Bruce Cutler, in a bear hug.

Someone from the audience screamed, “Justice prevailed!” and all the defendants began hugging and kissing their lawyers.

“Shame on them! I’d like to see the verdict on them too,” a triumphant Gotti said, pointing to the prosecution table, which had emptied amid pandemonium that erupted when the verdict was announced.

Praises Jury

Gotti then pointed to the jury box and said he was glad about “what these people did to them.”

Cutler said the jurors apparently did not believe the testimony of mob turncoats. “I think they’re tired of paid government informants who lie,” he said.

Gotti and Wilfred Johnson, the only two to have been jailed through the long trial, were ordered released.

Six of Gotti’s alleged associates in the Gambino crime family also were acquitted of charges of racketeering and conspiracy by an anonymous federal jury in Brooklyn after an often bitter seven-month trial.

It took the panel of six men and six women seven days to sort through 17,000 pages of testimony.

Variety of Charges

The racketeering charge said Gotti and the other six profited from murder, truck hijacking, gambling, cigarette smuggling and loan sharking. If convicted, they could have been sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The racketeering enterprise charged in the indictment was pictured as lasting more than 18 years and was allegedly supervised by the late family underboss, Aniello Dellacroce.

As Gotti quickly left the courtroom through a side door, a reporter asked: “How did you beat it?”

“Don’t talk to me. It was these people here,” the pleased Gotti said, gesturing to the jury.

Defendant Anthony Rampino said, “I knew it would turn out this way. I’m not surprised at all.”

‘I’m Happy’

As Eugune Gotti, the reputed don’s brother and co-defendant, walked out of the courtroom through a mob of reporters, he stopped for a minute to kiss his niece.

“I’m happy,” he said.

Michael Santangelo, an attorney for defendant Leonard DiMaria, was the only one to immediately blast the government’s case.

“The verdict shows that the jury was tired of the government’s magic show and as magic sometimes does, this case went up in smoke,” he said. “It shows that the jury was serious about the evidence and that they ignored the media hype.”

Also cleared were John Carneglia, 40, and Nicholas Corozzo, 46.

The jurors had asked for a verdict sheet about 11:15 a.m. and returned to the deliberating room about an hour later. Earlier they had relistened to a tape of wire-tapped phone conversations.

Gotti was the last of the leaders of the city’s five Mafia families to have been tried.

The four other mob chieftains were convicted on federal charges during the last year, including the leaders of the Colombo, Luchese, Bonanno and Genovese families, as the government waged war on the Mafia.