http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/350902p-299260c.html
Giddy Gotti is home free
Out on bail, Junior gets a big hello at L.I. estate
BY MICHAEL WHITE and ROBERT GEARTY
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
John A. (Junior) Gotti at his back door yesterday.
Balloons and cops line Gotti's property.
John A. (Junior) Gotti traded a cramped jail cell for his sprawling Long Island estate yesterday, where the ex-Mafia boss was welcomed home by his wife and children after being freed on $7 million bail.
"Welcome Home Dad," read a handmade sign at the entrance to the Gotti family compound in the tony North Shore hamlet of Oyster Bay Cove.
"How are you, my friends?" said a smiling Gotti as he greeted reporters across his backyard fence.
In the background, his giggling brood could be seen bouncing off a trampoline.
Asked how it felt to be out of prison for the first time in six years, Gotti said: "It feels great. It feels magnificent."
The 41-year-old son of the late mob boss John Gotti planned a quiet celebration with his wife, five children and friends. His youngest child wasborn while he was serving time for a 1999 racketeering conviction.
"John sounds like a different guy," said Gotti's defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman. "The kids are just deliriously happy."
Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin cleared the way for Gotti's release after declaring a mistrial last week in his racketeering case.
Gotti was cleared of stock fraud, but the jury hung on more serious charges, including an allegation that he sicced members of the Gambino mob on Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa for badmouthing his father in 1992.
He denied sending anyone after Sliwa and said he was innocent of the other charges because he severed ties with the Gambino mob when he went to prison in 1999.
The judge has scheduled Gotti's retrial to begin on Feb. 14, and under the terms of his bail he is confined to his Nassau County property until then.
But yesterday, the written statement he released after he was sprung from the federal lockup in lower Manhattan didn't sound like he had any plans to return to jail.
"I am thankful to finally be reunited with my wife and five children," Gotti said in a message released by Lichtman. "I did my time in prison and moved on with my life. I hope and pray that everyone will try to understand that my past is behind me and to please focus on my future and what I do from here on out."
Gotti's multimillion-dollar estate was decked out for the homecoming. Yellow balloons formed a huge arch over the driveway. More yellow balloons were hung along a 7-foot-high wrought-iron fence surrounding the property.
He arrived around noon, chauffeured by the U.S. Marshals Service, which had whisked him out of Manhattan Federal Court unseen by the media staked out for his release.
The $7 million bond was secured by $4.6 million in family properties, including sister Victoria's famed Old Westbury, L.I., mansion and his mother's home in Howard Beach, Queens.
He left jail wearing an electronic monitoring device on his ankle, and other bail conditions include random searches and phone taps.
Gotti will be allowed to leave his home only for attorney visits, medical appointments, religious services and occasional family events.
Giddy Gotti is home free
Out on bail, Junior gets a big hello at L.I. estate
BY MICHAEL WHITE and ROBERT GEARTY
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
John A. (Junior) Gotti at his back door yesterday.
Balloons and cops line Gotti's property.
John A. (Junior) Gotti traded a cramped jail cell for his sprawling Long Island estate yesterday, where the ex-Mafia boss was welcomed home by his wife and children after being freed on $7 million bail.
"Welcome Home Dad," read a handmade sign at the entrance to the Gotti family compound in the tony North Shore hamlet of Oyster Bay Cove.
"How are you, my friends?" said a smiling Gotti as he greeted reporters across his backyard fence.
In the background, his giggling brood could be seen bouncing off a trampoline.
Asked how it felt to be out of prison for the first time in six years, Gotti said: "It feels great. It feels magnificent."
The 41-year-old son of the late mob boss John Gotti planned a quiet celebration with his wife, five children and friends. His youngest child wasborn while he was serving time for a 1999 racketeering conviction.
"John sounds like a different guy," said Gotti's defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman. "The kids are just deliriously happy."
Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin cleared the way for Gotti's release after declaring a mistrial last week in his racketeering case.
Gotti was cleared of stock fraud, but the jury hung on more serious charges, including an allegation that he sicced members of the Gambino mob on Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa for badmouthing his father in 1992.
He denied sending anyone after Sliwa and said he was innocent of the other charges because he severed ties with the Gambino mob when he went to prison in 1999.
The judge has scheduled Gotti's retrial to begin on Feb. 14, and under the terms of his bail he is confined to his Nassau County property until then.
But yesterday, the written statement he released after he was sprung from the federal lockup in lower Manhattan didn't sound like he had any plans to return to jail.
"I am thankful to finally be reunited with my wife and five children," Gotti said in a message released by Lichtman. "I did my time in prison and moved on with my life. I hope and pray that everyone will try to understand that my past is behind me and to please focus on my future and what I do from here on out."
Gotti's multimillion-dollar estate was decked out for the homecoming. Yellow balloons formed a huge arch over the driveway. More yellow balloons were hung along a 7-foot-high wrought-iron fence surrounding the property.
He arrived around noon, chauffeured by the U.S. Marshals Service, which had whisked him out of Manhattan Federal Court unseen by the media staked out for his release.
The $7 million bond was secured by $4.6 million in family properties, including sister Victoria's famed Old Westbury, L.I., mansion and his mother's home in Howard Beach, Queens.
He left jail wearing an electronic monitoring device on his ankle, and other bail conditions include random searches and phone taps.
Gotti will be allowed to leave his home only for attorney visits, medical appointments, religious services and occasional family events.
