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Attorney Wants Arrangement To Keep Gotti In New York

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By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 6, 2008

TAMPA - Although federal prosecutors want to try John "Junior" Gotti in Tampa, Gotti's lawyer is hoping to work out a deal to keep the son of the Dapper Don in the Big Apple.

Gotti and five co-defendants have been charged with participating in a vast racketeering conspiracy under the umbrella of New York's Gambino crime family, In a federal grand jury indictment handed up Tuesday in Tampa, Gotti, 44, is accused of participating in three mob killings in New York between 1988 and 1991. He is also charged with trafficking in cocaine.

Gotti is being held without bail in a federal detention center in New York, according to Janice Oh, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York.

Charles Carnesi, Gotti's attorney, said he wants to work out an arrangement that will allow Gotti to make any initial court appearances in New York.

"I think that we are going to try and suggest that rather than coming down here, we arrange a videotape arraignment," Carnesi said. "If he has to be incarcerated, I would like him to be incarcerated up here so we have access to him."

Carnesi said that with modern technology there is no need to bring Gotti to Tampa before a trial.

"In this age, we can do it by satellite," he says. "If he is transferred immediately to Tampa, it serves no purpose."

Officials from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa could not immediately be reached for comment about Carnesi's bid to keep Gotti out of Tampa.

Gotti is the son of Gambino crime family boss John J. Gotti, who died in jail in 2002.

Editor Howard Altman can be reached at (813) 259-7629 or haltman@tampatrib.com.

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