Judge Gives Bickering Gotti Jury Twizzlers; Junior May Testify

One day after Judge Kevin Castel tried to broker peace between fighting jurors on the John Gotti, Jr. racketeering trial, the judge tried to sugarcoat the fragile peace... with Twizzlers. Yesterday Castel presented the jury with a big tub of the artificially-flavored twists, offering three reasons for the gift. One, "If you have a Twizzler in your mouth, you can't really have a serious conversation." (Yeah, that's the last thing you want on a jury.) Two, "If you're frustrated, you've got something to take your frustration out on." (Licorice whip!) And three, "They put you in a good mood." Looks like somebody's going to have to recuse himself from any Twizzler-related lawsuits from now on!

The jury accepted the peace offering, and no further strife between Juror 11 and the foul-mouthed Juror 7 was reported. The trial could end as early as next week, and it was learned yesterday that Gotti may take the witness stand tomorrow, because Judge Castel agreed to limit cross-examination so the ex-Gambino boss isn't turned into a de facto government informant. Gotti's lawyer tells the Post that Gotti believes testifying is "the way to get finality—get up there, get my story out, get my acquittal and get the hell out of here."