‘Mr. X’ Testifies During Silberman Hearing

A government informant accused of making death threats against Richard T. Silberman was incredibly violent, a mystery witness said Thursday in federal court, but Silberman’s lawyer conceded there had been no recent threats against the prominent San Diego businessman.

The mystery witness--identified in court only as “Mr. X”--charged informant Robert Benjamin, who he said was once married to his mother, with assaulting her, raping his sister and killing a man. The witness acknowledged he was sketchy with details, however, and said that all of the incidents took place 15 or 20 years ago, when he was a boy.

Mr. X did not mention Silberman, although defense attorney James Brosnahan had produced him to elaborate on the lawyer’s claim that Benjamin had told Silberman to “keep going with this thing,” an alleged money-laundering scheme, or else Silberman and his family would be killed.

Prosecutors noted holes in Mr. X’s stories but nevertheless said they would assign FBI agents to investigate them, leaving Brosnahan to concede he did not know of any recent “specific threats emanating from Mr. Benjamin.”

The testimony of the mystery witness was the highlight of a third day of hearings on defense requests to dismiss federal money-laundering charges against Silberman, reputed mobster Chris Petti and three other men. Prosecutors allege the group laundered $300,000 given them by an undercover agent who had characterized it as proceeds from a Colombian drug dealer.

Late Thursday, U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving denied virtually all of the defense requests, leaving only those that he said he needed more time to consider.

Irving decided Thursday, among other things, that FBI agents had properly read Silberman his rights when they arrested him last April 7 in a Mission Bay hotel room. That ruling opened the door for prosecutors to use “incriminating” statements they contend Silberman made to the agents, comments widely known to be detailed in a sealed FBI narrative describing Silberman’s behavior immediately after his arrest.

In a related development, the San Diego Tribune, citing federal court documents, reported Thursday that, when arrested, Silberman volunteered information to the FBI about Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.

The newspaper said the documents include transcripts of recent closed hearings before Irving in which at least four lawyers, discussing defense requests to keep that FBI narrative secret, identified Brown as the subject of Silberman’s statements to the arresting agents. Irving has ordered the narrative made public, but Silberman lawyer Brosnahan has appealed that decision.

The legal papers, sent to lawyers for the Tribune as an unsealed exhibit in a brief Brosnahan filed with his appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, do not describe what Silberman may have said about Brown. In Sacramento on Thursday, Brown said he had no plans to respond.

“You know how many times in your life you’ve gotten a rumor by Willie Brown? All unfounded?” he said.

“I’m certain that if I’m subpoenaed in any case, I will tell them what I know,” Brown said. “I don’t think they want me to be subpoenaed in cases where I know only what I know by reputation of people, from what I read you guys write.”

Silberman’s son Craig works for Brown in San Diego. Silberman, a longtime Democratic Party fund-raiser, was a top aide to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.

Mr. X’s testimony in court Thursday was preceded by a closed hearing Wednesday when lawyers discussed Brosnahan’s allegations of threats. Among other matters, according to a transcript of the hearing made public Thursday, Brosnahan said Benjamin was “examined” in the 1977 killing of Frank Bompensiero, a shooting in Pacific Beach that police said had all the trappings of a mob hit.

Bompensiero was found with four gunshot wounds to the head from a .22-caliber pistol.

In court Thursday, Mr. X said he was 4 when Benjamin married his mother. Over the next seven or eight years, roughly 1969 to 1977, Benjamin burned his mother with a lighter, beat her repeatedly, raped his sister and “shot up the house,” Mr. X said.

In 1973 or 1974, the family was living in Orange County and his mother had a flower shop, Mr. X said. Benjamin shot and killed a man outside a shopping center in San Juan Capistrano because the man owed him money, Mr. X said.

Mr. X said he was a passenger in Benjamin’s car, out for a ride, when Benjamin drove up to the man and, from the car, shot him twice in the head. The man was known by two names, Bill Martinez and Roger Sinclair, Mr. X said, adding that he didn’t know which was the true name.

Silberman cried and dabbed at his eyes with a handkerchief as Mr. X testified. Silberman’s wife, San Diego County Supervisor Susan Golding, held his hand.

Mr. X said he never reported the beatings, the rape or the killing to police because he was scared. He was summoned to talk about them in Silberman’s case after he was tracked down by investigators for defense lawyers in a county jail in Ann Arbor, Mich., he said.

Mr. X, now 23, said he had been living at an Orange County address for the past three weeks. But Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles F. Gorder Jr. said another man lived at that address, and though he sometimes got mail for Mr. X, he sent it back to the post office.

In addition, Gorder said, Orange County records showed no death certificates from 1971 to 1980 for Bill Martinez or Roger Sinclair. “We have serious questions as to whether anything Mr. X had to say today was true,” Gorder said.

More to the point was that nothing Mr. X had to say was relevant, Gorder said. “I don’t think there’s any danger to anyone in this court or the city of San Diego from Mr. Benjamin,” he said.

After hearing from Mr. X and the lawyers, Irving again refused Brosnahan’s request to force Benjamin to testify before the trial, part of a defense request alleging outrageous government conduct through the use of Benjamin as an informant.

However, saying it was for safety’s sake, the judge ordered Benjamin, who is in the federal witness protection program, not to travel to San Diego County or to have contact with anyone in the Silberman case without court approval.

In deciding that Silberman knowingly signed away his rights, Irving said Silberman, a “successful, obviously very intelligent businessman,” knew what FBI agents were doing when they read him his rights and asked if he would sign a waiver form, which he did.

Defense lawyers had contended that Silberman’s rights were violated because he asked for and was denied access to a lawyer, but Irving heard several FBI agents say that was untrue.

Irving also denied a number of defense requests to dismiss various charges for perceived technical defects in the way they were presented in the indictment. Those requests were without merit, he ruled.

In addition, Irving ordered that Silberman and Petti be tried separately, with Silberman’s trial beginning first, on April 10. He left undecided when Petti--as well as the other three men, Darryl Nakatsuka, Jack Myers and Terry Ziegler--will go to trial.

Contributing to this story was Times staff writer Ralph Frammolino in Sacramento.