With his anger boiling over Friday’s mistrial in the federal racketeering case against John A. Gotti, Guardian Angels founder and talk-show host Curtis Sliwa lashed out at longtime radio partner Ron Kuby, blaming the hung jury on Kuby’s testimony for the defense.

“John Gotti Jr. is home tonight because of Ron Kuby,” Sliwa said in a telephone interview hours after the mistrial was declared. “Ron was in total denial, but everyone knew, from the moment he got in that witness box, it changed the entire direction of the case because he sowed doubt in the minds of the jury.”

Gotti was accused of ordering a 1992 attack on Sliwa in which Sliwa was shot twice, allegedly in retaliation for the WABC/770 AM host’s on-air comments about Gotti’s father, Gambino boss John J. Gotti.
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Curtis Sliwa watched the man he claims ordered a hit on him walk away from court for the second time yesterday - and said it hurt more than the ambush that almost killed him.

“I would say this has been even more painful than being shot with three hollow point bullets,” he told the Daily News. “It’s like taking yet another slug.

“I feel I have been robbed. It’s like John [Junior] Gotti has been exonerated for all his sins, all his vicious crimes, simply because he announced his retirement.

“I see him pictured in the Daily News, in church receiving Holy Communion. On this guy’s orders, I was almost killed, and here he is, playing with his kids in his $2 million palace. It drives me crazy.

“This time was worse than the first trial. At least then I felt I had my say before the jury, they deliberated for 10 days and Junior was saved by one juror.

“In this one, I felt I was robbed because the jury couldn’t get past the issue of him being retired, which meant they couldn’t even consider the charges.”

But Sliwa’s real rage was saved for the co-host on his WABC-AM radio talk show. He said by testifying for Gotti, attorney Ron Kuby could have dealt a death blow to their nine-year partnership.
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“I’ve spent more time with Kuby in the past nine years than I have with my own family. He knows how much damage this attack did to me. He knows it destroyed my marriage, it got me fired. He’s seen firsthand the mental anguish I have gone through and he knew how important this trial was to me.

“And yet he stabbed me in the back. That’s something I take to my grave. This betrayal is a stain on my soul, and I will never forget it to the day I die.

“Nothing is worse than this. It’s a betrayal of the worst type, and I didn’t even see it coming.

“I can’t even look at Kuby now. It wasn’t just him turning up in court and willingly giving evidence that helped Junior get out of this. It was him being almost euphoric afterward. Instead of being apologetic and humble, he was almost joyful, and that blows me away …

“I blame him for Junior walking. It was over for Gotti, he was going to be found guilty and then, at the last moment, Kuby gets called.
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An enraged Curtis Sliwa yesterday lashed out at his radio talk-show partner Ron Kuby for helping John “Junior” Gotti - the man the Guardian Angel founder believes had him kidnapped and nearly killed - get another hung jury.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to go into that studio on Monday without wanting to literally do harm to this guy,” Sliwa said of his WABC co-host after Gotti’s retrial on racketeering charges was declared a mistrial.

Sliwa, wearing his trademark red Guardian Angels cap and satin jacket, blamed civil-rights lawyer Kuby for convincing at least some jurors that Gotti couldn’t be convicted of racketeering, due to the statute of limitations, because he had quit organized crime more than five years before he was indicted.

“My very dear friend, who is a friend no more, didn’t even give me a heads-up he would be testifying for my enemy,” he said, adding, “It hurt me even more than the three hollow-point bullets and the baseball attack in 1992.”
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