Gotti Lawyer Placed in House Arrest, Fined $5,000 on Gag Order Violation
UNIONDALE, N.Y. — John Gotti’s lawyer was sentenced Friday to 90 days under house arrest for talking to reporters during the mob boss’s 1991 trial.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Platt also fined Bruce Cutler $5,000, barred him from the state’s Eastern District courts for six months, ordered him to perform 600 hours of community service and placed him on probation for three years.
Cutler could have been sentenced to six months in jail.
“We feel their entire case should never have been brought and feel it will be overturned in appeal,†said Cutler’s lawyer, Frederick Hafetz. “The prosecutor never proved that Bruce violated the rules.â€
In January, Platt found Cutler guilty of disregarding three gag orders issued by U.S. District Judge I. Leo Glasser during the murder-racketeering trial that resulted in Gotti’s life sentence.
Glasser removed Cutler from Gotti’s case after prosecutors labeled him “house counsel†to the Gambino crime family, headed by Gotti, and said he could be called as a witness. Cutler did not testify.
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