Shargel Defends Gotti in the 'Good Old Days'
Gerald Shargel has on his website a video clip of him giving his closing statement in one of the John Gotti RICO trials in the late 1980s. (You need to click on "History," go along the timeline to 1990 and click on the "play video" over the image of Gotti.)
The fix was in -- and Gotti knew he'd be found not guilty. But watch this video and see the defense attorney in action. The Gambinos may have wasted some money with that payoff; Shargel just may have pulled it off. Elegant and intelligent, Shargel could use the force of argument as opposed to stomping around the courtroom, yelling and slam-dunking phonebook-thick indictments into garbage pails a la Bruce "the Bull" Cutler.
According to Wikipedia, Shargel (born 1944) is a high-profile defense attorney based in New York City who has been a member of the New York Bar since 1969. He has garnered attention as both a trial and appellate lawyer, representing white-collar clients and ordinary criminal defendants, but is most famous for, along with Bruce Cutler, securing the acquittal of Mafia boss John J. Gotti in 1990 on New York State charges that Gotti had ordered the shooting of labor union official John F. O'Connor. (It is opening remarks in that case that are in one of the videos on the link.)
In a subsequent 1991 federal case against Gotti, Judge I. Leo Glasser barred Shargel and Cutler from representing Gotti, agreeing with prosecutors' assertion that the lawyers were "house counsel" to the Gambino Crime Family and thus so knowledgeable about family business to be subject to be called as witnesses in the case (presenting a conflict of interest).
Some of Shargel's more recent high-profile clients include Daniel Pelosi, who was charged and later convicted of the second-degree murder of East Hampton millionaire Ted Ammon,[3] as well as that of Robert "Joe" Halderman in the matter of Halderman's extortion of TV personality David Letterman.[4]
If you click the link you must wait for the file to download before you will get the image. You may have to search for it -- but it is worth the search... Clips of John Gotti, resplendent and in the height of the last gasp of power, his iconic image is hard to forget...
The fix was in -- and Gotti knew he'd be found not guilty. But watch this video and see the defense attorney in action. The Gambinos may have wasted some money with that payoff; Shargel just may have pulled it off. Elegant and intelligent, Shargel could use the force of argument as opposed to stomping around the courtroom, yelling and slam-dunking phonebook-thick indictments into garbage pails a la Bruce "the Bull" Cutler.
According to Wikipedia, Shargel (born 1944) is a high-profile defense attorney based in New York City who has been a member of the New York Bar since 1969. He has garnered attention as both a trial and appellate lawyer, representing white-collar clients and ordinary criminal defendants, but is most famous for, along with Bruce Cutler, securing the acquittal of Mafia boss John J. Gotti in 1990 on New York State charges that Gotti had ordered the shooting of labor union official John F. O'Connor. (It is opening remarks in that case that are in one of the videos on the link.)
In a subsequent 1991 federal case against Gotti, Judge I. Leo Glasser barred Shargel and Cutler from representing Gotti, agreeing with prosecutors' assertion that the lawyers were "house counsel" to the Gambino Crime Family and thus so knowledgeable about family business to be subject to be called as witnesses in the case (presenting a conflict of interest).
Some of Shargel's more recent high-profile clients include Daniel Pelosi, who was charged and later convicted of the second-degree murder of East Hampton millionaire Ted Ammon,[3] as well as that of Robert "Joe" Halderman in the matter of Halderman's extortion of TV personality David Letterman.[4]
If you click the link you must wait for the file to download before you will get the image. You may have to search for it -- but it is worth the search... Clips of John Gotti, resplendent and in the height of the last gasp of power, his iconic image is hard to forget...