SDG&E; Hearings Loom as Highly Charged Affair

If the deposition sessions for two former SDG&E; board members are any indication, the upcoming legal fight over the utility’s sellout to Southern California Edison will be high-voltage stuff--part Perry Mason, part pit bull.

James E. Lyons, Los Angeles-based attorney for a New York firm representing SDG&E;, objected 150 times to questions asked by the Washington, D.C.-based attorney representing the city of San Diego.

Lyons routinely argued that questions by H. Van Sinclair were 1) vague, 2) ambiguous, 3) leading, or 4) all of the above. In one toe-to-toe exchange, he demanded that Sinclair “quit grandstanding.” Sinclair snarled back that he didn’t need legal advice from the likes of Lyons.

Undeterred, Lyons later told Sinclair that one of his questions was so outrageous it “should be taken outside and shot.”

Lyons, 38, a New York University law graduate, is a partner in Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, considered the firm if you want to fend off or pursue a takeover. The firm has handled 38 of the nation’s 100 top-dollar mergers and acquisitions.

Among other cases, Lyons has helped beat back hostile takeovers of Walt Disney Productions and Caesars World casino in Las Vegas. Contrasted with those skirmishes, the SDG&E; depositions were “a rather low-key affair,” he said.

“I don’t consider myself overly aggressive,” Lyons said. “If I objected 150 times, it’s because I had an absolutely sound, factual, legal basis.”

A San Diego lawyer disagrees, saying that Lyons “must take nasty pills in the morning.”

One Way or Another

Bureaucrats at the city of San Diego received unsolicited advertisements this week from a company in Woods Cross, Utah, selling “bullet-resistant ballistic briefcase inserts.”

The lightweight inserts, selling for up to $189.95, are to turn briefcases into shields against gun-wielding ex-employees, terrorists and estranged spouses. For those uninterested in the inserts, the company has an alternative offer: a $19.95 book on writing your own will.

The Mighty Have Fallen

Notes from the Silberman beat.

- Reporters looking for background on Richard T. Silberman found an advertisement for a lecture series in 1978 sponsored by the City Club of San Diego. The topic was “San Diego Inside: The Power Structure and How it Works,” and the lineup was impressive.

Politics: Roger Hedgecock (pre-conspiracy & perjury conviction).

Justice: Bill Kolender (pre-ticket-fixing scandal) and Superior Court Judge Hugo Fisher (pre-drunk-driving convictions and censure by the California Supreme Court for mishandling a $5-million conservatorship).

Money: Richard T. Silberman (pre-whatever).

- The alleged drug-money laundering scheme of Silberman and reputed mobster Chris Petti may be the only such scam ever put on hold so one of the participants could attend the swearing-in of a U. S. President.

According to the FBI affidavit, Silberman was hell-bent to launder as much money as quickly as possible, but then, on Jan. 6, he allegedly told an undercover agent that he was leaving for a week to attend President Bush’s inaugural.

“Consensually recorded conversations disclosed Silberman went to the inauguration and then left for Europe and returned to San Diego on or about Jan. 27,” the affidavit says.

- In two years of wiretapping Petti, the Silberman conversations are not the only items to pique the curiosity of the FBI. An investigation is under way into a possible stolen credit-card ring involving organized crime figures.

On the Other Hand

As her husband prepares his legal defense against charges that he was ready to do business with Colombian cocaine traffickers, Susan Golding returns to work as chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors.

On next Tuesday’s board agenda are five proposals to fight drug peddling in San Diego County. The ideas come from a Drug Abuse Strike Force formed in 1986 at the behest of Supervisor Golding.