Judge rules son of jailed crime boss won't have to
testify in Atlanta strip club trial

ATLANTA
(May 18, 2001 11:06 p.m. EDT ) - The son of jailed crime boss John J. Gotti will not have to testify in the racketeering trial of the owner of one of the country's most profitable strip clubs, a federal judge ruled Friday.

According to the order by Judge Willis B. Hunt, the government intended to ask John A. "Junior" Gotti four questions, including whether Gotti knows Gold Club owner Steve Kaplan and whether Gotti visited Kaplan in Florida or Atlanta.

Prosecutors already put one former associate of the Gambino family on the stand and tried to establish that Kaplan has been involved in organized crime since at least the late 1980s.

Gotti's lawyers filed a motion arguing he should not be required to testify because it could violate his Fifth Amendment rights not to incriminate himself.

Hunt said Gotti, who had been brought to Atlanta, can now be returned to federal prison in New York. He is serving a 77-month sentence for bribery, extortion, fraud and gambling.

Kaplan and six others connected to the strip club are accused of funneling money to organized crime, cheating customers by overcharging their credit cards and loan sharking.

Kaplan also is charged with pimping club dancers to celebrities and professional athletes and ordering the beatings of about 20 people who owed him money.

Earlier Friday, defense attorneys tried to peck away at the credibility of prosecution witness Dino Basciano, a former low-level mob figure turned informant who testified that Kaplan and co-defendant Michael DiLeonardo were linked to the Gambino family.

Basciano, who has been in an FBI protection program since he began cooperating with authorities in 1994, said Thursday that Kaplan was an "earner associate" for the Gambinos, paying off a number of mob bosses in the 1980s. He also said DiLeonardo was a captain in the organization.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Art Leach said prosecutors will call another veteran of organized crime next week as well as several police detectives and FBI agents from New York who have investigated mob activity.

The trial is expected to last several months.

News Copyright © 2001 Interest!ALERT