Kimberly and Gianna Gotti plead not guilty to assault charges stemming from brawl at high school basketball game
The wife and daughter of former acting mob boss John “Junior” Gotti pleaded not guilty — yet again — to the same misdemeanor assault charges they pleaded not guilty to this past winter stemming from a brawl at a high school basketball game in February.
Kimberly Gotti, 56, and her daughter Gianna Gotti, 25, first appeared in Nassau District Court in Hempstead before Justice David Goodsell on Feb. 3, the day after they were accused of punching, kicking and pulling the wig off the parent of a player from Locust Valley High School, where the game took place.
The fight started after taunting in the stands between fans of rivals Oyster Bay High School and Locust Valley escalated, officials said.
Crystal Etienne, the alleged victim in the case, claimed the Gottis hurled homophobic, sexist and racist slurs at members of the opposing team, court papers show. She said in her affidavit that when she asked the women to stop, they assaulted her.
In May, the judge had questioned the sufficiency of the charges filed against the women because Etienne’s affidavit only identified them by their clothes, not by name.
The Nassau County District Attorney’s office filed an updated complaint, and materials that show body camera footage from Nassau police, additional witness affidavits and video screenshots taken inside the gym during the dust-up.
The case was called before 11 p.m. Tuesday and both women pleaded not guilty.
“This is the third effort by the prosecution to draft a legally sufficient accusatory instrument,” Steven Christiansen, the lawyer for Kimberly Gotti said after the hearing. He accused Nassau prosecutors of trying to “extort a guilty plea” from Kimberly Gotti in exchange for offering to drop her daughter's charges after six months.
Gianna Gotti leaves First District Court in Hempstead on Tuesday. Credit: Newsday/Howard Schnapp
The judge will now review further requests from defense lawyers to drop the case due to insufficient certification from the prosecutors that they have shared all the evidence with the defense team.
Christiansen argued in his court papers that Etienne’s version of the event can’t be trusted after she withheld information about her criminal history from prosecutors.
Etienne pleaded guilty in 2017 to a misdemeanor charge after embezzling $50,000 from a car dealership where she worked as the comptroller — a conviction prosecutors admit she denied having.
Her lawyer, Frederick K. Brewington, said previously that raising the years-old conviction by the defense team was an attempt to “intimidate” his client.
Christiansen said hiring Brewington suggests Etienne intends to sue after the trial.
“This makes the DA’s criminal prosecution a means to an end for her to get money out of the Gottis by way of money judgment in civil court,” he said.
Brewington said the Etienne family retained him as a lawyer for their protection.
“The criminal prosecution of these people will stand on its own,” he said.
The Gottis return to court Sept. 10.
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