HIP-HOP PRODUCERS GET ACQUITTAL, THEN HUGS, FROM JURORS

A federal jury acquitted the hip-hop impresario Irv Gotti and his
brother of money-laundering charges late yesterday, prompting jubilant
cheers and pandemonium in the packed courtroom in Brooklyn. The
verdict ended a three-year ordeal for the two men and dealt a stunning
blow to federal prosecutors.

Minutes after the verdicts were read at the end of the second day of
deliberations, two women on the jury asked that the brothers be
brought into the jury room, where they hugged them. Then they asked
for the men's parents, and hugged them, too.

When the jury foreman read out the not guilty verdicts on
money-laundering and related conspiracy charges in the hushed
courtroom, Mr. Gotti, 35, in a light gray suit with a white shirt and
gray tie, threw his head back and mouthed "thank you" twice to the
jurors, nodding his head, his eyes filling with tears. His brother,
Christopher Gotti, 38, standing beside him, began to cry, and several
supporters shrieked.

Cheers erupted, despite earlier warnings from Chief Judge Edward R.
Korman of United States District Court and his clerk. The two brothers
began hugging their lawyers - Gerald L. Shargel and Gerald B. Lefcourt
- - and their friends and family. Then Irv Gotti jumped up on a bench
and reached into the courtroom gallery to hug the rap star Ja Rule.

Then, after returning from his brief meeting with the jurors, a
breathless and elated Irv Gotti spoke to reporters from the well of
the courtroom.

"They took my life from me for three years," he said, clutching a
diamond-encrusted medallion that he described as a tribute to his late
mother-in-law, who he said had watched over him. "But it's all good.
I'm not mad. I love this country. But from Day 1, they had it wrong
with me and my brother. I'm no criminal."

The brothers would have faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The three-week trial focused on the friendship between the two
brothers, whose actual surname is Lorenzo, and Kenneth McGriff, a
convicted drug gang leader who was known as Supreme on the streets of
southeast Queens, where his crack and marijuana operation held sway in
the 1980's. Prosecutors charged that the men used the record label,
then called Murder Inc. and later renamed the Inc., to launder $1
million in drug proceeds.

Irv Gotti defended his support of Mr. McGriff and said the government
went after him because he stood by his friend.

Several jurors said the government had failed to present enough
evidence, with one, who did not want to give his name, comparing the
evidence to "a cartoon" and another, Gloria Menzies, calling it weak.

Asked whether she was one of the jurors who wanted to hug the Gottis
and their parents, Ms. Menzies, 60, who lives on Staten Island and
teaches blind children, said: "Oh, yes. From the beginning."

"They had no case against them, so we were glad," Ms. Menzies said. "I
was glad. And a lot of jurors were glad too, that they found them not
guilty."

One of the jurors said he voted to convict early during the
deliberations, based on the closing argument by Carolyn Pokorny, an
assistant United States attorney, but later, after reviewing the
evidence, concluded that there was reasonable doubt and voted to
acquit. Mr. Shargel said the case "should never have been brought in
the first place."

After the verdicts, the trial prosecutors from the office of the
United States attorney in Brooklyn, Roslynn R. Mauskopf, remained
largely stoic as the victory party in the courtroom gained steam. In a
courtroom hallway a few minutes later, they declined to comment, with
Sean Haran, an assistant United States attorney, saying only, "We
respect the verdict."

The party quickly spilled out of the courthouse, with Mr. Shargel and
Mr. Lefcourt nearly carrying Irv Gotti - he had his arms thrown around
their shoulders and his feet off the ground - out into a cheering
crowd, where the darkened street was illuminated by the lights from
several TV cameras.

Both brothers hugged some of the jurors, who joined the raucous crowd
in front. Ms. Menzies also hugged Ja Rule, crying out his name and
declaring, "I want to give you a hug right now!"

"No," the beaming rapper replied, "I want to give you a hug right
now."

The two then posed for photos together.

The brothers' father, Irving Lorenzo, cried when the verdicts were
read and a short while later was beaming. "I have my boys, they're
back, God bless them," he said. "I'm just very sorry their careers got
interrupted the way they did."

Later in the evening, the brothers celebrated on board the Utopia 3, a
large boat docked at Chelsea Piers, with relatives, friends and associates.

The crowd of about 50 to 60 on board was mostly male and busy
drinking, smoking, eating Ray's pizza and walking around in their
socks. Ja Rule was there with his wife, and the rap producer Russell
Simmons was just arriving about 8:30 p.m. Christopher Gotti could be
overheard on a phone telling someone, "We did it, we did it, man." Irv
Gotti was said to be somewhere in the back of the boat.

With the acquittal, Irv Gotti is expected to return to work as a music
producer and rekindle his search for a financial partner among the
major record corporations. Vivendi Universal, which had been his
partner in the Murder Inc. label, severed its ties with Mr. Gotti
several months ago, and his talks with other companies - including
Warner Music Group - stalled amid the federal inquiry. Executives at
various music companies have said privately that they had been leery
of allying themselves with him while he remained under a legal cloud.

Lyor Cohen, the former chairman of Vivendi's Island Def Jam unit,
which had been Mr. Gotti's partner in Murder Inc., said yesterday,
"I'm so happy for Irv and his family that this difficult experience is
over. Irv is a true record man with impeccable taste and an undying
passion for hip-hop."

Mr. Cohen, now the chief executive of Warner Music's United States
operations, said he had great confidence in Mr. Gotti's "ability to
continue his exceptional track record."

Steve Gottlieb, who heads the independent label TVT Records and who
employed Mr. Gotti in the mid-1990's, said yesterday that "he leaves
this not only with a clean bill of health but as someone whose stature
has been enhanced by standing his own ground. It's not just that he
was acquitted, but the over-hyping of the charges that will cause
people to kind of be dismissive of the whole affair."

Still, he may find it difficult to restore his former empire. Mr.
Gotti began as a D.J. spinning records at parties in Queens, then
enjoyed a rapid ascent from talent scout - he was credited with
helping discover the rap stars Jay-Z and DMX - to rap mogul with his
own label, where he released platinum-selling hits by Ja Rule and the
singer Ashanti. But these days, he faces heavy competition from a crop
of other hot producers.

After the verdict, Mr. Gotti said that after his office was searched
in the early stages of the investigation, the specter of a criminal
enterprise run out of the record label shut down his business.

"They had everybody who loved me in corporate America, who felt I was
a good guy, distance themselves from me," he said. "All while I was
saying, 'I didn't do this, I didn't do this,' and they was like,
'O.K., we'll wait and see.' "

Yesterday, he said he was eager to get back into the
studio.

"I'm never getting into any other trouble though, you can put your
bottom dollar on - I'm never - no jaywalking or nothing," he said,
quickly adding, "And I was never in trouble in the first place."

The investigation into the brothers and their label began three years
ago.

Conducted by a task force of city detectives and federal agents and
overseen by Ms. Mauskopf's office, the inquiry led to significant
changes in how the label presented itself, from changing its name to
the Inc. to overhauling its Web site. The site, which once featured
the sound of gunfire and showed images of bullets penetrating its logo
and a picture of rappers clad as 1940's-era mob figures, is now far
more subdued, with pictures of the label's artists.