Silberman Trial Ruled ‘Complex,’ Put Off Until 1990

A federal judge said Monday that he will declare the money-laundering charges against San Diego businessman Richard T. Silberman and three other men a “complex case,” which means that the defendants probably will not stand trial until sometime next year, at the earliest.

In addition, U. S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving signed a protective order prohibiting attorneys on both sides of the complicated case from publicly discussing the evidence as the lawyers begin the laborious process of trading and digesting thousands of pages of documents relating to the criminal charges.

The judge’s actions came in a brief court hearing in which Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles Gorder said there are voluminous evidentiary materials in the case, including 6,000 pages of affidavits, wiretap applications, court orders and other documents, along with 1,000 cassette tapes from the telephone wiretaps.

“It’s reasonable to think it would take a couple of months to digest all that,” he told the judge.

Need Time to Review

Likewise, attorneys for defendants Silberman, Chris Petti, Darryl Nakatsuka and Jack Norman Myers indicated to the judge that they would need until mid-September to review the materials. They also requested hearings on ensuing court motions for November, which probably would put a jury trial well into next year.

After hearing their concerns, the judge asked Gorder to draw up an order declaring the matter a complex case, to obtain the signatures of the defense attorneys, and then submit the order to his courtroom.

“If you’ll submit it to the court, then I’ll be happy to sign it,” Irving said.

Once the order is filed, the legal requirement for a speedy trial within 71 days of the indictment will be waived, and attorneys for both sides will be granted more time to prepare for the case.

But the judge also made it clear that he does not want the case to drag on indefinitely. “I want to get this case started as soon as possible,” he said.

The judge signed the protective order on the request of attorneys for both sides, who said it was a routine precaution in high-visibility, complicated cases. They said it will mean that neither side can leak crucial evidence to the press and that evidence will only become public as is filed in court.

The defendants are charged with laundering funds represented to them as proceeds from Colombian narcotics sales but actually provided by an undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Silberman, who was a close aide to former California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., is married to Susan Golding, a member of the county Board of Supervisors.

All four defendants have pleaded not guilty. They all remain free on bail, except for Petti, whose probation on an earlier bookmaking case was revoked after his indictment in the money-laundering case.