'Junior' Gotti to be released on bail pending trial

WHITE PLAINS, New York (CNN) -- A federal judge ruled Wednesday that alleged mob heir John A. "Junior" Gotti can be released on bail pending his trial on racketeering charges.

The final conditions of bail were to be set in a hearing before Magistrate Judge Mark Fox. Gotti's lawyer, Sarita Kedia, said she hoped her client would be released by early next week.

According to prosecutors, the 34-year-old Gotti has helped run the Gambino crime family since his father, John J. Gotti, was imprisoned for life for murder and racketeering in 1992.

The son has been in jail since January, when he and 39 other men were indicted on various charges related to organized crime.

U.S. District Judge Barrington Parker had denied Gotti bail twice before, saying Gotti was a threat to the community. But on Wednesday, in a brief written order, he said proposed conditions of release satisfy the law.

Kedia said "justice has been served" by Parker's ruling.

"The government was unable to show the court that John A. Gotti presented a danger to the community" or "that he held any supervisory position in the alleged Gambino family," Kedia told CNN.

She said the defense has offered to put up $10 million in bail and would agree to house arrest, electronic surveillance or almost any other restrictions on Gotti's movements. His sister, writer Victoria Gotti, offered to put up her $4 million Long Island mansion as part of the bail package.

Gotti is scheduled for trial in January. His lawyers argued that it would be unfair to keep him in jail for a year without bringing him to trial, and that there was no evidence Gotti is a mob boss.