Case Abandoned

The fourth court case against the son of one of New York’s most notorious modern gangsters, John Gotti Junior, has been dropped by prosecutors. “In the course of five years, juries in four trials failed to reach a verdict against John Gotti on charges of murder and racketeering. Justice officials said they would not seek a fifth trial. John Gotti, who has been free on bail of $2m (£1.6m), insists he left organised crime in the late 1990s. US Attorney Preet Bharara issued a one-paragraph statement saying that prosecutors had decided not to seek another trial ‘in light of the circumstances’, and Judge Kevin Castel approved the request. The repeated failure of juries to agree on a verdict has earned Mr Gotti comparisons to his late father, who escaped conviction in a series of trials in the 1980s and early 1990s and gained the nickname the Teflon Don because charges would not stick to him.”