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Prosecutors Want To Conceal Gotti Informants' Names

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI

esilvestrini@tampatrib.com

Published: October 31, 2008

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John A. Gotti Jr. (2006)

TAMPA – Prosecutors don't want to tell John "Junior" Gotti about all the people who have turned on him.

The prosecution filed a motion today in U.S. District Court asking a judge to allow prosecutors to withhold from the defense information about some "co-conspirators or victims of the underlying criminal acts of the Gambino Crime Family Enterprise."

Gotti is facing federal prosecution in Tampa on racketeering charges alleging he participated in a vast organized crime conspiracy involving murder, drug trafficking and witness tampering that extended from New York to the Tampa area. His attorneys have asked that the case be transferred to New York.

The prosecution maintains that the case belongs in Tampa, partly because Gotti headed efforts by the Gambino crime family to gain a foothold in the area.

Today, the prosecution filed a motion asking for an exception to the normal rules of discovery, the process by which parties share evidence before a trial.

The prosecution wants to delay until the trial starts sharing:

"(a) The existence and substance of any payments, promises of immunity, leniency, preferential treatment, or other inducements made to prospective government witnesses;

"(b) Any written application to a court for immunity of a prospective government witness and any order issued in response to that application;

"(c) Any documentation or other tangible evidence which would serve to identify any cooperating co-conspirators or victims of the underlying criminal acts of the Gambino Crime Family Enterprise, as charged in the Indictment, who have not previously testified or been otherwise identified in earlier filings and/or proceedings."

Prosecutors also don't want to share certain audio or video recordings obtained during the ongoing investigation which did not include Gotti's voice.

Sharing the information, the prosecution maintains, would compromise the identities of government witnesses and "needlessly endanger their lives and property, obstruct the administration of justice and likely create a substantial danger to other members of the community, including the family members of prospective government witnesses."

The filing says Gotti's defense opposes the motion. Gotti's attorney, Charles Carnesi, could not immediately be reached for comment.

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