Results tagged “trial”

Federal prosecutors aiming to convict mob scion John Gotti Jr. came up short for the fourth time in five years when a deadlocked jury failed to reach a verdict. After more than a year behind bars, Gotti Jr. was released on $2 million bail yesterday and visited his mother in Howard Beach, Queens, before returning to his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island, the Post reports. "This is unbelievable, I can't put it into words. It's been a long fight," he said. When his mother joked that they should celebrate by going to Disney World, Gotti said he couldn't because he legally isn't allowed to leave the New York area: "I can't, it's out of my district."

In July 2008, the Vice Enforcement Squad raided Big Daddy Lou's Hot Lap Dance Club on West 38th Street, which was ranked as the best of all strip clubs in the world by AskMen.com. Prosecutors say it was so beloved because the club offered much more than erotic dancing to its upscale clientele, including on-site cocaine sales, and private rooms with beds for $250 an hour (plus whatever customers gave "dancers" behind closed doors). During the raid, police arrested some dancers, including porn star Alexia Moore, on alleged prostitution charges, as well as staff members and club owner Louis Posner, a lawyer who started a voter reform advocacy group after the 2000 election.

Could the fourth time be another charm? The jury deliberating the fate of John Gotti Jr.—whose past three federal trials have ended in mistrials—sent a note to Judge Kevin Castel yesterday reading, "We are unable to reach a verdict." Castel told the group to keep deliberating at first, but then sent them home for the weekend.

While the majority of Americans aren't happy with the plan to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in New York City, more New Yorkers support the plan than oppose it, according to two new studies. Based on findings from a nationwide phone survey by Rasmussen Reports, 51 percent of Americans think it's a bad idea to host the trials in the city, while 29 percent of respondents favor the proposal to move the suspects from Guantanamo Bay to Lower Manhattan.

While former mayor Rudy Giuliani continued to blast plans to host the trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in New York City, the Daily Show went after some seemingly hypocritical comments the likely gubernatorial candidate made just three years ago.

Gov. David Paterson followed former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's lead yesterday, when he denounced plans to hold the trial for Kalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in New York.

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani made the talk show rounds this morning to denounce the Obama administration's decision to try five accused 9/11 plotters—including mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed—in New York City's federal court. On Fox News Sunday, Giuliani said the White House was "repeating the mistake of history" and had reverted to a "pre-9/11 approach... What the Obama administration is telling us loud and clear is that both in substance and reality, the War on Terror from their point of view is over. [Mohammad] should be tried in a military tribunal. He is a war criminal. This is an act of war."

After U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that five of the plotters behind the September 11 attacks—including mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed—would be tried in federal court in lower Manhattan, the reaction has ranged from the outraged and upset to the relieved. Retired deputy fire chief Jim Riches, whose firefighter son while responding to the World Trade Center's fires, told the NY Times, "Let them come to New York. Let them get on trial. Let’s do it the right way, for all the world to see what they’re like. Let’s go. It’s been too long. Let’s get some justice."

As if watching NFL football wasn't torture enough, a Bronx man claims he was literally tortured by his guests at his Super Bowl party last year. Michael Terry, 40, says he invited his drug-dealing neighbors over to watch the big game, but after the Giants defeated the Patriots, his guests overstayed their welcome, and used his apartment to sell drugs to other buyers. When he tried to throw them out, Terry says they handcuffed him to a chair and put him through hell.

The United States will try September 11 attacks mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as well as four other 9/11 terror plotters, in New York City. Federal sources say that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will make the announcement today; President Obama didn't confirm the details, but did say from Japan, "I am absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subjected to the most exacting demands of justice."

The city could make some good money selling tickets and popcorn to this Gotti Jr. trial circus! Yesterday's episode starred Victoria Gotti, the unhinged wife of late mobster John (Dapper Don) Gotti and mother to Gotti Jr., who's currently on trial for racketeering. As Judge Kevin Castel moved to dismisses a juror who was criticized for her vulgar language and pro-defense attitude, the mob matriarch unleashed a profanity-laced tirade.

The jury in the "morbidly obese" defense case heard closing arguments today on defendant William Ates, who is accused of murdering his former son-in-law in 2006, including a potential game-changing piece of evidence. Assistant Bergen Country Prosecutor Wayne Mello even poked fun at Ates' weight, saying, “He’s not running a marathon. I’ll agree he probably can’t do that...What he can do is execute his son.”

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!

Juror 11 in the John Gotti, Jr. racketeering trial cannot stand Juror 7, and the enmity between the two has gotten so intense that legal experts think it could result in a hung jury—which would be the fourth time federal prosecutors have been derailed by the jury. Yesterday Judge Kevin Castel intervened to try and make peace, but Juror 11, who works as a city procurement-contract analyst, seems to be at the end of her rope.

A man accused of murdering his son-in-law in Ramsey, NJ is claiming that he couldn't have committed the crime because he's too fat. William Ates, 65, is on trial for the 2006 shooting death of 40-year-old Paul Duncsak, who was shot six times in his NJ home, and who was in the middle of a bitter custody-dispute with Ates' daughter.

CityRoom reports, "The federal corruption trial of Bernard B. Kerik, New York’s former police commissioner, which was supposed to begin Monday, has been indefinitely postponed, according to a court document. There was no reason given in the document, which was filed Friday in the United States District Court in White Plains. No new date has been set." Our guess: The judge wants Kerik to have more time to think while in jail.

You may recall the sad, stupid saga of (former) maintenance man Robert Lopez, who was arrested in 2007 while sitting on the stoop of his apartment building with some fake sticks of dynamite he found in the trash. Lopez had brought the cartoonish-looking "bomb" home from work with the intention of making a piggy bank out of it, but when a concerned transit worker called the cops, his ridiculous legal nightmare began.

Prosecutors say the man accused of killing a Windsor Terrace dry cleaning owner last year poured ammonia on his victim's neck after he strangled her to burn off fingerprints and DNA. But he left the bottle of ammonia behind in the store, providing investigators with a crucial fingerprint. Yesterday Supreme Court jurors began hearing evidence against Jamal Winter, who's charged with murdering beloved shop owner Kyong-Sook Woo, a 62-year-old grandmother, on May 15, 2008. Winter was in violation of parole at the time of the murder, but was on the streets because of a justice system failure.

Yesterday found State Senator Hiram Monserrate not guilty of felony assault charges but guilty of a misdemeanor—"recklessly causing physical injury" to his girlfriend Karla Giraldo during a December incident where Monserrate slashed her in the face with a broken glass. Today, Monserrate's lawyer Joseph Tacopina said on Good Day New York, "She loves him, as she testified in court. As he said yesterday, he loves her...And they're looking to get back together and resume their marriage...uh, relationship." To which GDNY anchor Rosanna Scotto said, "Will they get married?" and Tacopina replied, "Maybe I said marriage, maybe I let the cat out of the bag, but that's where it's heading."

Some of the jurors who endured the 19-week-long trial surrounding the late Brooke Astor's estate explained their decision to find Astor's 85-year-old son guilty of grand larceny. Yvonne Fernandez, 52, said of Anthony Marshall, whom prosecutors said was driven to loot his mother's fortune for his wife Charlene, "It sort of reminded me, when I was in Brooklyn years ago and there was a blackout, and the lower-income people were stealing refrigerators and TVs, and they felt that was due to them," adding, "We all have our flaws, and you know, of course, the flaw here was greed."

">Post reports the Teflon Don's son shouted to John Alite during a break, "You’re a dog! You’re a dog! Did I kill little girls, you fag? You’re a punk. You’re a dog all your life — you always were. Do I strangle little girls in motels?"

After a 19 week long trial, a jury has found Anthony Marshall guilty on one count of first-degree grand larceny related to stealing the $200 million fortune of his late mother, the philanthropist Brooke Astor. The NY Times notes, "Barring an appeal, the jury’s verdict means that [Marshall], an 85-year-old war veteran who fought at Iwo Jima, can be sentenced to anywhere from 1 to 25 years behind bars."

Given that these jurors have had to sit through five months of testimony in the trial involving Brooke Astor's fortune, is it any wonder that nerves are seriously frayed? On Monday, the jury sent the judge a note, "Due to heated argument, a juror feels personally threatened by comments made by another juror... With regards to her personal safety, she wishes to be dismissed anonymously," and then later that day, one juror was seen "sobbing."

Back in 2007, police arrested a man accused of brutally beating and mugging a 101-year-old woman and then an 85-year-old woman, but a 2008 trial ended in mistrial because the jury forewoman had some work/travel issues. Now, a second trial jury is deliberating the case again, after hearing from the prosecutors, who say Jack Rhodes was identified by witnesses, and Rhodes' lawyer who claims his client is being set up. Centenarian victim Rose Morat had taped her testimony early last year in case she couldn't make it to trial, but she's now 103!

At first, the trial over Brooke Astor's estate was an exciting glimpse into society; months later, it's just boring. The NY Times reports that jury deliberations are forcing the defendants (including Astor's son Anthony Marshall) and lawyers to kill time: "Mr. Marshall, 85, has been alternating between reading French literature by the likes of Honoré de Balzac and dozing off on the bench. At one point last week, Mr. Marshall lay asleep on a wooden bench in the hallway outside the courtroom with a newspaper over his face." And a defense lawyer said, "Thank God for Wi-Fi."

The day after actress Kirsten Dunst testified about the dastardly theft of her purse from her Soho Grand hotel room back in 2007, the man accused of swiping the Balenciaga purse took the stand. The Post reports that James Jimenez tried "to convince a jury that his buddy told him it was OK to go up to Dunst's empty penthouse suite" and "claimed he had no idea Dunst's purse was inside the white shopping bag that the same buddy gave him to carry out of the hotel." He even said it was a favor for the pal's mom, but the prosecutor asked, "At four in the morning?"

During State Senator Hiram Monserrate's assault trial, a nurse testified that his girlfriend Karla Giraldo begged that he not be allowed into the room where doctors were examining the cuts on her face, saying, "He's crazy! He's crazy!" And an ER doctor testified that Giraldo yelled, "I can’t believe he did this to me! My face! My face! I can’t believe my face!"

When plotting to cut off some dude's Johnson, research is everything. On trial yesterday on charges of killing her father and cutting off his penis, airport security guard Brigitte Harris, 28, told jurors she thoroughly searched the Internet for rod-cutting inspiration, finding Lorena Bobbitt's infamous attack on her husband particularly helpful. But before anyone calls for banning the Internet to save the penises, note that Harris's father allegedly molested her since the age of 3 (and her younger sister).

Today in Kew Gardens opening arguments were heard in the bench trial of State Senator Hiram Monserrate, who faces three counts of felony assault against his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo. The Daily News reports that the prosecutor accused Monserrate of flying into a jealous rage at finding another man's business card in his girlfriend's purse, and attacked her with a glass of water, saying, "You want the water? You want the water? Here's your water!", slashing her face with the broken glass.

State Senator Hiram Monserrate, who faces three felony charges related to allegations that he slashed his girlfriend's face last year, will now receive a bench trial, instead of a jury trial; jury selection was supposed begin today. Monserrate, who is a freshman Senator and who was part of the coup in Albany earlier this summer, has maintained his innocence, that a glass fell and accidentally ended up cutting girlfriend Karla Giraldo on the face. Giraldo also says it was an accident (though some hospital workers claim she indicted Monserrate may have acted purposefully)—the scar required 20 stitches to close. The NY Times notes that court documents say "Video cameras at the Jackson Heights building where Mr. Monserrate lives captured scenes of a violent confrontation between the couple." Monserrate's lawyer suggests that the video was spliced together in a damning fashion and says that Monserrate was actually trying to make Giraldo go to the hospital. Queens DA Richard Brown is confident in his office's case, "We have become leaders in successfully prosecuting domestic violence cases without the cooperation of the victim, who is so often reluctant — or fearful — to testify against her accuser."