Raps dropped against Gotti kin over wig-pulling high-school hoops brawl: ‘Feels great’
Assault raps against Mafia scion John Gotti Jr.’s wife and daughter were dropped Tuesday in a case involving a wild brawl at a youth basketball game on Long Island, officials said.
Kimberly Gotti, 55, and Gianna Gotti, 23 — the daughter-in-law and granddaughter of infamous late Mafioso John Gotti Sr. — were accused of attacking a woman at a Feb. 8 basketball game at Locust Valley High School when the woman shouted insults at Kimberly’s son Joe, who was playing the visiting team from Oyster Bay High School.
The mother-daughter duo allegedly slugged the woman and ripped off her wig while calling the other team’s players “f—–ts and p—ies.”
The misdemeanor third-degree assault charges against the Gotti women were tossed Tuesday “on procedural grounds,” according to a rep for the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.
The office did not elaborate on what the procedural grounds were.
But Gotti lawyer Gerard Marrone said his clients refused to take previous plea offers from prosecutors because of witness credibility issues, including involving the alleged victim’s unrelated criminal history, and because the DA’s office failed to turn over evidence on time.
“When we really looked into it, we realized that the complaining witness in the case had a substantial criminal record and was charged with a felony,” the lawyer said. “The DA’s office did not tell us that, and then they did not give us discovery in a proper, timely fashion.”
Marrone said he filed a “monster motion” raising the issues in court papers, and “the court agreed with us, and the case was dismissed and rightfully so.
“We are very pleased with the outcome,” he said.
After the hearing, Gotti Jr. blasted the media outside court for publishing a witness affidavit claiming his wife and daughter made racist comments during the incident — allegations he said were “totally false, totally untrue.”
Gotti Jr. said the witness was unreliable and changed her account in a second affidavit.
Gianna Gotti — a professional basketball player who previously played for Brooklyn College before signing with a team in Portugal — added outside court that the judge’s decision “feels great.
“I can’t wait to go home and tell my mom and tell her the news,” she said.
Kimberly wasn’t in court because the judge waived her appearance, given her serious health issues, Marrone said.
“She’s not well,” the longtime Gotti family lawyer explained. “She is very sick. Unfortunately, her cancer came back. She is fighting a battle right now, this poor lady. The judge is aware of it, and he waived her appearance.”
Marrone maintained that the charges “never should have been brought” and the fact that his clients are mob royals led to their arrests.
“We have always maintained that because of their name, they are targeted,” Marrone said of general run-ins with the law and the Gottis — whose late patriarch was the boss of New York’s Gambino crime family.
“Today is just another example of law enforcement targeting them,” he said of Tuesday’s proceeding.
The DA’s office will wait for the judge’s written decision in the case and then “will review our options,” the agency’s representative said, leaving the door open for a potential appeal.
