He became one of the country's best-known criminal defense lawyers after winning acquittals in three cases that spawned a new nickname for Mr. Gotti: "the Teflon Don."
Bruce Cutler, a combative New York criminal defense lawyer who won acquittals three times for the mob boss John J. Gotti, and whose intimidating cross-examinations of witnesses became known as a "Brucification," has died in Brooklyn. He was 77.
He died of complications of kidney failure late Sunday night or early Monday at a care facility, said J. Bruce Maffeo, a lawyer and former federal prosecutor who was a friend of Mr. Cutler's.
Bald, stout and barrel-chested -- The New Yorker once said he resembled Telly Savalas crossed with Jesse Ventura -- Mr. Cutler embraced a pit bull approach to jurisprudence that made him a tabloid favorite for years.
In "Mob Star," their 1988 book about Mr. Gotti, Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci wrote that Mr. Cutler, in his raspy Brooklynese, could "take the prosecution's evidence, spin it, scuff it, twist it and pound it to a pulp, until it was nothing more than a lumpy pile of reasonable doubt."
Mr. Cutler won acquittals for Mr. Gotti in highly publicized trials in 1986, 1987 and 1990, earning his well-dressed client, who was long known as the Dapper Don, a new nickname: the Teflon Don. In the process, Mr. Cutler drew national attention and dubious acclaim as a flamboyantly effective counselor. He said immodestly that he excelled at "the crucible of cross-examination." (The tabloids preferred the term "Brucification.")
At the trials, Mr. Cutler nimbly defended Mr. Gotti, the reputed head of the Gambino crime family, against various charges, including assault, robbery, racketeering and conspiracy. One allegation was that he had ordered the shooting of a carpenters' union president. In the racketeering case, one juror was later convicted of accepting a bribe to vote not guilty.
But when Mr. Gotti was indicted in 1990 for the 1985 murder of the Gambino chief Paul Castellano, in what prosecutors said was a bid to seize control of the most powerful crime family in the United States, a federal judge disqualified Mr. Cutler from representing him.
Prosecutors had told the court that Mr. Cutler had been aware of Mr. Gotti's criminal activity -- which would void the attorney-client privilege -- and that, as "in-house counsel" to the Mafia, he might even become a witness in the case.
In seeking disqualification, the prosecution said that according to secret recordings, Mr. Gotti seemed to have ordered Mr. Cutler to tell a Gotti associate to leave himself open to a contempt charge rather than testify before a grand jury. Mr. Cutler replied, "I understand." Five days later, the associate refused to testify. Mr. Cutler denied that he had tampered with the witness.
Represented by other counsel in the case, Mr. Gotti was convicted of murder and racketeering and died in prison in 2002 at 61 while serving a life sentence.
Over the years, before juries and banks of microphones, Mr. Cutler accused the government of falsifying wiretaps, bribing witnesses and other corrupt practices. He once labeled charges against Mr. Gotti as "a rancid stew" that "belongs in the garbage." To demonstrate his contempt for one prosecution, he theatrically hurled a hefty copy of the indictment into a garbage can before gobsmacked jurors.
While handling a Gotti case, Mr. Cutler was charged with criminal contempt for ignoring a judge's warnings to comply with a federal rule that barred lawyers from making vitriolic out-of-court statements that could affect a pending trial. Mr. Cutler even insulted the judge, I. Leo Glasser, declaring, "Glasser is like the Jews the Nazis used to lead the death-camp inmates into the gas chamber."
Other lawyers had been fined for similar antics, but at the time, Mr. Cutler was believed to be the first lawyer convicted of contempt for defying a judicial gag order. The judge that heard the case, Thomas C. Platt, sentenced him to 90 days of house arrest and three years of probation while suspending him from practicing law in the Eastern District of New York for 180 days.
In upholding that sentence, an appellate court said that Mr. Cutler's statements to reporters "were dipped in venom and were deliberately couched to poison the well from which the jury would be selected."
Mr. Cutler insisted that his comments, made five months before the trial began, had no impact.
"I consider a criminal lawyer's function to be a counselor, a confidante and a friend to his client,"
he declared. Other lawyers supported Mr. Cutler, saying he had been exercising his First Amendment rights and demonstrating loyalty to his client.
Mr. Cutler said he had been chastened by the contempt conviction and acknowledged that some people might find his demeanor offensive. He could be "impatient, too loud, too emotional and totally disorganized," he told The New York Times in 1993.
He tended to his public image by playing himself in the action film "15 Minutes" (2001), starring Robert De Niro and Ed Burns; and in the television police drama "Blue Bloods" in 2014.
With help from Lionel René Saporta, Mr. Cutler wrote a memoir, "Closing Argument: Defending (and Befriending) John Gotti and Other Legal Battles I Have Waged" (2003), in which he said he strongly identified with his charismatic underworld client.
"I was already thoroughly imbued with John's credo, his feelings about life and the government's case,"
he wrote.
"I had no need of instruction or direction in summation -- as I stood before the jury, I was John Gotti."
In 2004, Mr. Cutler became the lead defense lawyer for Phil Spector, the music producer charged with fatally shooting a woman at his home the year before. After a falling out over legal strategy, Mr. Cutler left the case in 2007, and Mr. Spector was found guilty two years later of second-degree murder.
Bruce Cutler was born on April 29, 1948, in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn and grew up in Flatbush. His father, Murray, was a police detective turned criminal-defense lawyer. Bruce's mother, Selma (Scheiner) Cutler, looked after the home.
Mr. Cutler captained the football teams at Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn and at Hamilton College in upstate New York, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1970. He graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1974.
His marriages to Gladys Moross and Barbara Wolf Patterson ended in divorce; he had a son Michael from another relationship. "I'm impossible to live with," he told The Times. "I'm moody; I'm not good company a lot; I have bad temper. Sometimes when I get home after hard day's work I don't want talk about anything -- I just want work out , take shower and watch TV."
Information on his survivors was not immediately available; he was estranged from his family according to his friend Mr. Maffeo
After law school ,Mr.Cutler spent seven years with Brooklyn District Attorney's office ,rising senior supervising attorney Homicide Bureau .He left 1981 become junior partner criminal-defense lawyer Barry I.Slotnick ,whose clients included Mafioso .
Assigned handle mob trial one defendants Mr.Gotti ,Mr.Cutler recalled ,he felt instant rapport him soon went own represent him Mr.Slotnick's blessing .
"I was 36 years old ,a kid ,when I met him,"
Mr.Cutler told The Times .
"But he had faith me ,he trusted me .If that doesn't make feel good ,I don't know what does."
He later described their relationship blessing curse ,but there little doubt that Mr.Gotti’s death left void Mr.Cutler’s life .He waxed nostalgic interview New York magazine 2005 explaining that his representation Louis Eppolito former police detective convicted next year racketeering conspiracy under contract Mafia evoked good old days defined Mr.Cutler’s career .
"It's my whole life,"
he said wistfully."It's Brooklyn;it's policemen;it's reputed gangsters;it's government witnesses;it's federal prosecutors;it's Brooklyn D.A.people;it's detectives;it's F.B.I.;it's D.E.A.Everything!"