John “Junior” Gotti’s wife and daughter charged with assault after fight at high school basketball game
By Jennifer McLogan
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LATTINGTOWN, New York (WCBS) — John “Junior” Gotti’s wife and daughter were arrested Thursday night after a fight at a high school basketball game on Long Island.
It happened around 8:12 p.m. Thursday at Locust Valley High School in Lattingtown.
John “Junior” Gotti, the former acting boss of the Gambino crime family, left arraignment court in Hempstead defending his wife and daughter who were charged with assault and spent the night in jail.
“They refused to press charges against the lady who assaulted my wife first. That’s the only reason why we’re here: Because they’re stand up,” Gotti said.
According to court papers, Kimberly Gotti, 55, and Gianna Gotti, 23, got into a brawl with a woman at Locust Valley High School while watching a game versus rival Oyster Bay High. Gotti son Joseph was on the court.
“When Joe had the ball, and was going to make a free throw, this woman was kind of abusing Joe. And the mom, rightfully so, it’s a mother’s instinct, turned around and said ‘Listen, leave my son alone, stop bothering him. What’s wrong with you?'” Gotti attorney Gerard Marrone said.
“She threw a punch. She hit my wife in the head,” John “Junior” Gotti said.
But the alleged victim told police the fight erupted after she asked someone to stop cursing at the students, and punches were thrown.
“At that point, I felt my hair being pulled and felt my wig come off, which was held on by three clips and velcro,” the victim said in her statement to police. “I felt as if my scalp was going to be ripped off and I observed the lady in the gray jacket pulling my hair.”
The victim then said Gianna Gotti said “I’m 25, and me and my mother already snatched your **** off.”
The woman filing charges lives on the North Shore. She told McLogan to speak to her attorney.
“Junior” ran the crime family while his father, the “Teflon Don,” was serving a life sentence, and died of cancer behind bars in 2002.
Gianna Gottis is known as a breakout basketball star, and was the leading scorer at Oyster Bay. She and her mother were released on their own recognizance.
The Gotti women were issued a stay away order from the alleged victim, and are due back in court March 6.
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