Now that it’s official that John (Junior) Gotti is looking to testify in his own defense at his upcoming re-trial for racketeering, he’s getting criticism from an unlikely defender of mob tradition. 

The defender is Lewis Kasman, the wealthy 49-year-old businessman who has often referred to himself as the “adopted son” of Gotti’s father, the onetime-Dapper Don. 

Kasman, who gave the elder Gotti a source of legitimate income through the 1980s by keeping him on the payroll of his garment center business and once even did a six-month prison stint for lying to a grand jury about his ties to him, laced into his late pal’s natural son in a series of irate phone and e-mail messages to Gang Land. 

Junior Gotti is doing nothing less than “destroying his father’s legacy,” said Kasman in one blast.

“That (taking the witness stand) would not be John’s father’s way, even though John is doing nothing his father’s way,” said Kasman. “He should get on with the trial and put an end to this circus,” said Kasman.

The longtime mob crony’s tirade was triggered by last week’s Gang Land column. It theorized – quite correctly, it turns out – that Gotti might want to testify for himself at his upcoming trial because he no longer has anything to hide in

the wake of recent disclosures that he had a secret “proffer session” with the feds. Such sessions usually lead to the criminal becoming a turncoat. During the meeting, sources said, Gotti admitted committing crimes with others but shunned a cooperation deal.

On Tuesday, Gotti’s lawyers told Manhattan Federal Court Judge Shira Scheindlin that their client would be willing to take the stand if the judge would prohibit the prosecution from conducting a “fishing expedition” into alleged crimes by others and limit its cross examination solely to the crimes for which Gotti is charged. 

Even before that filing, Kasman was upset. He complained that Gang Land did not report that he had stated his disagreement with tentative plans Gotti had to testify a year ago in a discussion with Gotti’s current lawyer, Charles Carnesi, who said at the time that he did not think it was “a bad idea.”

The voluble Kasman, who planned Junior’s gala black-tie wedding reception at the Helmsley Palace in 1990, was apparently concerned that some readers – perhaps the Gotti  “mob peers” whom Gang Land referred to last week – might wrongly infer that he agreed with Carnesi’s opinion.

“You neglected to insert in your article that I took Carnesi to task and reprimanded him for even making that suggestion. I specifically told Carnesi

that John A. Gotti should not take the stand,” said Kasman, stressing that he preferred the elder Gotti’s approach.

The Junior Don, who has admitted being inducted into the Gambino family and serving as acting boss for his father (right) during the early 1990s, obviously thinks Kasman’s approach is all wet.

In court papers, his lawyers made no mention of Gotti’s no-longer-secret proffer session with the feds, but there’s little doubt of its importance in the scheme of things.

Under the defense proposal, “Mr. Gotti is fully prepared to testify about his own actions, motives and state of mind as they relate to the charged crimes during the relevant time period,” wrote Sarita Kedia, co-counsel of Carnesi and Seth Ginsberg.

“In other words,” wrote Kedia, “Mr. Gotti is indisposed to becoming a de facto cooperator” against other wiseguys “who have nothing whatever to do with the charges in the indictment.”

What that means is that Gotti’s current attorneys are trying some nimble jiu-jitsu that, hopefully for their client’s sake, will turn a colossal blunder by him and his former lawyers – meeting secretly with the feds when he was not looking to

make a cooperation deal – to his own advantage now that everyone knows that he did not become a turncoat.

According to Kedia, (left) prosecutors could question Gotti about the kidnap-shooting of Sliwa, the extortion of persons in the construction industry, loansharking, witness tampering, and money laundering.

Prosecutors could also grill him, wrote Kedia, about the linchpin of his defense, that he withdrew from the racketeering conspiracy in 1999, more than five years before the indictment was filed, and “abandoned his former life and has no allegiance to it.”

Citing previous federal court rulings that limited the cross examination of defendants “based on concerns” that included harassment, humiliation, prejudice and “the witness’s safety,” Kedia asked the judge to limit the prosecutors’ areas of inquiry to Gotti’s direct testimony and to matters that affect his credibility.

Contacted after Gotti’s latest request was filed, Kasman declined additional comment.

Prosecutors Victor Hou and Miriam Rocah are sure to disagree strongly with the defense request, but declined to comment.

Meanwhile, court officials are finalizing plans to distribute questionnaires next week to hundreds of prospective jurors from which the judge (right) will select an anonymous jury that will weigh Gotti’s fate. Trial is expected to begin in about two weeks. 

Despite Kasman’s stated disapproval of Gotti’s legal tactics, the defense is still likely to use excerpts from a secretly recorded jailhouse conversation the two men had two years ago in an effort to convince jurors that he withdrew from the mob.

During a May 14, 2004 discussion at Ray Brook penitentiary, where Gotti served a five year stretch, he repeatedly told Kasman of his desire to uproot his family and leave New York when he finished his prison term, according to court papers in the case.

After Junior (left) said he was investigating several possibilities, including “Pacific Coast property in Oregon” and a ranch in “north central Florida,” Kasman replied: “Good luck, brother.”

At another point, Gotti instructed Kasman, who had been subpoenaed to testify by the federal grand jury that ultimately indicted Junior, to “go to the grand jury (and) answer every question. You’re legitimate.” 

The men also discussed several matters which could easily be viewed as Gambino family business, indicating that Gotti had a continuing relationship with the mob, according to a prosecution summary of the four-hour discussion obtained by Gang Land.

At one point, for example, Gotti said he used a mob associate to forward money to the wife of his imprisoned uncle, family capo Gene Gotti. At another, he told Kasman that his other uncles, Peter (left) and Richard, (right) had “poisoned” his father against him and allegedly implied he would retaliate. Gotti “promised that the game ‘ain’t over,’” according to the summary by former assistant U.S. attorneys Joon Kim and Jennifer Rodgers.

Prosecutors Hou and Rocah are not expected to play any of these conversations at trial.