By Jerry Capeci

Gotti threw in the towel after Federal Judge Barrington Parker reversed himself and ruled that the case would be decided by an anonymous jury -- one that is supposedly harder to bribe or intimidate -- and after Gotti learned that he would face more court battles even if he were acquitted.

The deal will cost a Gotti 70 to 87 month prison term and $1.5 million in fines, forfeitures, restitution and court costs -- very much like the one that he  repeatedly turned down over the past few months.

Even if he receives the maximum at his sentencing in July, the 35-year-old Junior Don would have to serve less than six years before returning home to his families -- the Gambino clan, and his wife and kids in Mill Neck, L.I.

This ends the case brought by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office that could have cost Gotti 20 years and a lot more than $1.5 million. It also satisfies federal loansharking and tax charges under investigation in Brooklyn and gun charges being probed by the Queens District Attorney's office.

Most state and federal investigators and prosecutors -- as well as Gotti's high powered defense duo of Gerald Shargel (right) and Bruce Cutler (left) -- are pleased with the outcome since neither side can lose at what would have been a well-publicized and hotly contested.

No matter what they say publicly, Gotti's lawyers as well as Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White were very worried about losing the case.

Several prosecution witnesses were not eager to testify and are thrilled they won't have to take the witness stand -- like turncoat Gambino mobster Dominick (Fat Dom) Borghese (right) and former associate Joseph (Davy Crockett) Fusaro.

And even though none are about to complain, there is a large contingent of participants in the 15-month-old case that  is unhappy about Gotti's last minute decision to take the plea deal -- namely, all the wiseguys who pleaded guilty earlier.

Guys like Gambino capos John (Jackie Nose) D'Amico and Louis Ricco and soldiers Craig Depalma and Mario Antonicello -- and many others -- had to accept prison terms six to 10 months longer because Gotti rejected the so-called "global plea" deal that was offered in December.  

Shargel said Gotti, in the end, "found himself in a no-win situation. If he was convicted, he would be sentenced to time in jail." If he were convicted, he would get major time; if acquitted, every prosecutor in the area would be gunning for him. "He did this for closure and finality," Shargel said. "It's a nice end where he can get all the guns pointed at him out of the way."

There's a bunch of guys who wish Gotti had figured that out a few months earlier.

It places a huge bullseye on the chest of capo Peter Gotti -- older brother of jailed-for-life family boss John (Dapper Don) Gotti -- and makes him an even bigger target of the FBI's Gambino squad.

The squad -- which made the racketeering case that ended the career of John Gotti (right) and the engineered the drug trafficking conviction that got younger brother Gene a 50 year sentence-- had nothing to do with Junior's case. The case against Junior was made by state Organized Crime Task Force investigators.

Peter Gotti, 59, is the only member of a committee that brother John put in place to help Junior run the family who has escaped conviction. Before Junior pleaded, capos Nicholas (Little Nick) Corozzo (left) and Jackie D'Amico (right) went down for racketeering and gambling, respectively.

And while law enforcement officials often poke fun, anonymously, at  Peter Gotti's smarts, the former sanitation worker beat the feds the only time they made a case against him -- a 1991 racketeering case based on the mob's control over the replacement window industry in city housing projects.  

Joseph (Little Joe) D'Angelo was detained for a hearing later this week after prosecutors alleged he was a danger to the community and a risk to flee drug and racketeering charges because he faces up to 40 years in prison if   convicted.

Gravano took D'Angelo under his wing in the early 1980's after his father, a Gravano partner also named Joseph and nicknamed "Stymie," was killed in a gangland dispute, according to court records.

When Gravano (right) took the witness stand against John Gotti for the first time in 1992, the baby-faced D'Angelo showed up in Brooklyn Federal Court and did his best to distract and intimidate the turncoat underboss.

D'Angelo and six others, including reputed Gambino soldier Frank (Frankie Fapp) Fappiano, were charged with loansharking, extortion, conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana, and weapons violations.

In a letter filed with Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann, prosecutors Jim Walden and Christopher Blank linked D'Angelo to armed burglaries,   extortions and the Aug. 8, 1990 rubout of contractor Edward Garofalo.

D'Angelo was spotted and photographed in a "huddled conversation with Gravano the day after the Garofalo murder," the prosecutors said.

Also charged is Joseph (Joe Babe) Serrano, a  Brooklyn man acquitted of a racially motivated murder of a black youth in Bensonhurst that polarized the city in 1989. All the suspects pleaded not guilty.

Yusef Hawkins, 16, of East New York, was attacked by a gang of white youths wielding baseball bats, then fatally shot, after going to Bensonhurst to answer an ad about a used car.

Serrano was cleared of murder but convicted of possessing a weapon -- a bat -- during the attack. He received three years' probation, a $1,000 fine and 300 hours of community service.

D'Angelo and Serrano, dressed in sweat suits, smiled and blew kisses to  family members and friends during their arraignments, according to my Daily News colleague, Helen Peterson.

Walden and Blank cited Serrano's role in the confrontation that led to Hawkins' death in a letter seeking his detention on the new charges. Serrano, like D'Angelo, was held without bail pending a hearing.

Serrano's lawyer, Susan Kellman, ripped prosecutors for reviving the 10-year-old racial killing days after four white cops were charged with murder for firing 41 shots and killing an unarmed African immigrant and as five other white cops were about to go to trial on various charges in a case in which a Haitian immigrant was brutalized and sexually assaulted in a police stationhouse in 1997.

"I think the only thing the government has is Bensonhurst. That inflames everybody, especially right now," said Kellman. "He went to trial [for] Bensonhurst and was acquitted of everything except a misdemeanor."