Judge Sentences Gotti’s Brother to 9 1/2 Years

The brother and successor of the late mob don John Gotti was sentenced Thursday to 9 1/2 years in prison for charges related to his crime family’s domination of the Brooklyn waterfront.

Former trash collector Peter Gotti, 64, was his brother’s heir as head of the Gambino crime family, receiving monthly cash tributes from violent toughs who seized control of the waterfront through threats and intimidation, prosecutors said.

At the sentencing, defense attorney Gerald Shargel portrayed Gotti as a paper godfather, enfeebled by eye disease, mocked by his family and persecuted by federal authorities.

U.S. District Judge Frederic Block handed down a sentence more lenient than the maximum 11 1/4 years under federal sentencing guidelines, but stricter than the nine-year minimum.

Gotti, convicted for money laundering, conspiracy and racketeering, listened impassively. He took control of the Gambino crime family after John Gotti’s son was jailed; the mob boss died of cancer in prison in 2002.

Addressing the judge, Shargel called Gotti a figurehead so poorly respected that brother Gene Gotti once declared, “He should have [kept] picking up garbage cans.”

Shargel also spoke about Peter Gotti’s tumultuous family life. His longtime girlfriend was found dead, an apparent suicide, in a Long Island motel two weeks ago after her confession of their affair created a flurry of tabloid headlines. His estranged wife had written to Block asking that he impose the harshest possible sentence.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Andrew Genser said Gotti lived off criminal activity that claimed “many victims.”

Gotti could be paroled after 6 1/2 years. He faces a separate racketeering trial in federal court in Manhattan.