Mobster's Wife Charged With 'Endangering Child's Welfare'

It could be a plot out of an episode of The Sopranos: A Long Island mother --and also the wife of a turncoat Gambino mobster -- was sentenced to three years probation Monday and fined $1,200 after admitting to having a long-term sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy, according to published reports.

Ironically, her husband got the same sentence, albeit for different crimes, but his fine was more than 10 times higher

Stephanie Finnerty, of Oceanside, was also ordered to stay away from the teen, who was a high school friend of her daughter. She was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

The underage acts are said to have taken place inside Finnerty’s Oceanside home, which she shares with her husband, Michael, and their children.

Michael Finnerty is a former mobster who testified against Junior Gotti in his racketeering and murder conspiracy trial.

Surprisingly, the Finnertys were not placed in the Witness Protection Program -- and with the media now shining a spotlight on the family, including where they live, Finnerty might need some Xanax or Valium (or maybe an AK47)  to calm down tonight. Even if Junior really did resign and has no ties with the Gambinos or any other families, the Mafia, as an institution, doesn't like rats.

Finnerty was a former Gambino who turned on Junior and escaped hard time for the assortment of crimes he committed during his mob years.

In May 2010, he was sentenced by a Manhattan federal judge to three years' probation and was fined $12,500.

"Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Trezevant said Finnerty cooperated fully with investigators probing Gotti in 

the hope of getting a light sentence. He faced a sentence of up to six years in jail," according to an article in the New York Daily News. He had been denied bail and was in jail during the course of the trial. (Was that when the wife developed an "interest" in her daughter's friend?)

Finnerty started hanging out at 16 with a gang of high school friends that went on to become Gotti's Howard Beach, Queens, crew, the article said. (Junior graduated from New York Military Academy located in Cornwall-on-Hudson; it is not clear if Finnerty or any of his friends attended the same high school, but they all lived -- or at least hung out -- in Junior's neighborhood in Howard Beach.)

Soon Finnerty dropped out of school and began a life of crime - stealing cars, assaulting and robbing drug dealers, among other things.

The 45-year-old associate gave up being a gangster in the  early '90s, crediting his wife, Stephanie, with 

turning his life around.

The article continued: "As our relationship became serious, Stephanie voiced her concerns about my friends," Finnerty wrote, asking for leniency from the court. "She did not like any of them. Deep down I knew she was right."

Apparently she liked some of her daughter's friends, though.