By Brian Zanzonico
In a three-minute, profanity-laced tirade with the jury out of the courtroom last Tuesday, Gousse accused the D.A.'s office of "using the media to poison the jury pool," and claimed that the "pen is filled with black people" because of it.
"The jury selection is the most important thing," he said. "Twelve white jurors want to lynch a black man. That's what it's about, a lynching."
Of the 12 jurors in the trial, one is black.
After Carter adjourned the proceedings for the day hours later, he excused the jury and ruled against defense attorney Martin Geduldig's request to call a manager of a Cedarhurst bank near the one at which Gottlieb worked to testify.
Geduldig said that on Jan. 4, 2005, the manager was followed home from work by a black man in a dark, late-model SUV - the type of vehicle residents of Semton Boulevard in Franklin Square testified to seeing speed away after hearing gunshots the following night. Gousse rented a dark, late-model SUV the morning of the Gottlieb murder.
When Carter announced his decision, Gousse rose from his seat and called him "a certifiable house n---," repeating the phrase even after the judge calmly left the courtroom. Carter, like Gousse, is black.
"It makes me want to laugh at him," said Gottlieb's widow, Elizabeth, who sat in the front row during both incidents. "What a stupid fool he is."
Gousse was slated to be the last person to testify, but after a meeting with his attorney, his girlfriend and another person, he decided against it, according to sources.
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