By JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Victoria Gotti has hired a prominent civil rights law firm to stop the feds from seizing $8.7million in property owned by her ex-hubby, the Daily News has learned.

The firm, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, also is representing former baseball trainer Brian McNamee - who says he injected Yankee hurlers Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte with performance-enhancing drugs.

The Mafia princess is calling in the legal heavyweights to fight the feds' attempt to seize and sell commercial properties in Queens owned by her former spouse, Carmine Agnello.

The feds want to recoup the multimillion-dollar judgment he owes as part of his guilty plea to racketeering nearly seven years ago.

"This is a case about the government using its power to reach out and seize property," said Gotti's lawyer Andrew Celli, former head of the state attorney general's civil rights bureau.

"Innocent people have a right to their property, including Victoria Gotti," he said. "She's hired us to prevent the government from overreaching."

The government doesn't see it that way.

Agnello designated Gotti, who lives in a mansion on Long Island, to collect the rents on the properties and pay herself $25,000 a month to satisfy the monthly maintenance and child support he owes under their divorce settlement, court papers say.

The settlement made no provision for Gotti to pay taxes on the properties, which have fallen into arrears.

Agnello was recently freed from prison, has a new girlfriend and is living in Ohio, sources said.

His lawyer declined to comment.

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Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/01/31/2008-01-31_victoria_gotti_hires_civil_rights_firm_t-3.html?ref=rss 

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