Judge wins praise from Gotti's mother

NEW YORK, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- The mother of Mafia scion John A. Gotti, who is on trial in New York, has praised her son's judge in a letter for setting aside the convictions of two cops.

In a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Jack Weinstein, Victoria Gotti said he'd restored her faith in the justice with his "tremendous amount of courage" in setting aside the murder convictions of former New York detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa last month. A jury had found the two had participated in eight gangland slayings while still on the job, reports the New York Daily News.

"You have restored my hope that my own son may have a chance, or should I say a second chance at life," said the letter which has been entered into a court file, the report said.

Her 42-yer-old son, who has had two mistrials, is being tried for alleged racketeering conspiracy in which he is accused of assault on radio host Curtis Sliwa in 1992.

In the Eppolito and Caracappa case, Weinstein ruled the statute of limitations on the racketeering conspiracy had expired, the News reported.