Ailing Gotti ordered to stay behind bars

Elderly and ailing former Gambino crime boss Peter Gotti lost his effort Wednesday to be released early from prison because the frail gangster is still dangerous.

“I reject the notion that Gotti is no longer a threat to the community. The danger posed by a Gambino family leader like

Gotti is not that he will personally engage in acts of violence, but that he can command others to do so,” Judge Colleen McMahon wrote.

The 80-year-old mobster filed the surprising request for compassionate release in February, citing an array of ailments including heart problems, dementia, blindness and cancer. The government argued Gotti (inset) was receiving adequate treatment behind bars at a federal prison in North Carolina and that he was exaggerating his supposed terminal diagnosis.

“I only want to the [sic] home with my family and tell anyone who will listen that I am a changed man and that there is no benefit to unlawful activities,” Gotti wrote in a letter to the court. “I truly regret my choices that hurt so many, and in the little time I have left on this earth would hope to be able to share some of my new-fund [sic] wisdom to help others not make the same kind of mistakes that I have made.”

Gotti took over the Gambino crime family from his famous brother, John Gotti, in 1999. He spent $70,000 on unsuccessful efforts to find Salvatore “Sammy Bull” Gravano, the mob rat who put John Gotti behind bars. Peter Gotti ordered two subordinates — who used aliases and changed their appearances — to travel to the West Coast and Arizona and look for Gravano.

He also was instrumental in extortion schemes of labor unions and construction companies beginning in the 1990s. Peter Gotti was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2003 and is currently scheduled for release from prison in 2032.

McMahon did not dispute that Gotti is sick. But she wrote that his crimes were so serious that he had to remain locked up.

“Gotti headed one of the most vicious and violent organized crime organizations in New York for a period of years. During that time, the Gambino family earned millions of dollars from extorting the construction industry, and Gotti personally ordered the death of a government cooperator, Gravano,” McMahon wrote.

“I do not believe that Peter Gotti’s sentence should be reduced, notwithstanding his compromised medical condition.”