Silberman Lawyers Say They Fear for His Safety : Court hearing: Although the businessman accused of money laundering was seen in an airport ticket line, attorneys say there is no reason to believe he has fled.

Although Richard T. Silberman was reportedly seen Thursday in a ticket line at Lindbergh Field, his lawyers told a federal judge Friday there is “no basis” to believe that the prominent San Diego businessman is a “fugitive from justice” and said they were worried about his safety.

At a hastily called hearing Friday morning in U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving’s chambers, Silberman’s San Francisco lawyers said they had no information about where he might be. They made the comments before Silberman’s car was found parked at Lindbergh Field and police learned that Silberman had been seen at a USAir counter, buying a ticket to Los Angeles.

The lawyers said that a mystery witness who testified last week in pretrial hearings had been shot at on Tuesday near Newport Beach. They asked for protection for the witness and suggested that the alleged shooting was cause for concern over Silberman’s well-being.

Prosecutors dismissed the report of the shooting as “incredible” and unsuccessfully asked that Silberman’s $500,000 bond be revoked.

Silberman, 60, a wealthy businessman and former top aide to Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., is accused, along with reputed mobster Chris Petti and three others, of laundering $300,000 that an undercover agent had told Silberman was the proceeds of drug trafficking. Silberman’s trial is scheduled for April 10; the other four are scheduled for a July 17 trial.

The bizarre story Silberman’s defense lawyers told Irving on Friday morning about the mystery witness--identified last week in court only as “Mr. X”--surfaced shortly after news of Silberman’s disappearance.

Mr. X, who said last week in open court that he was 23 and recently got out of a county jail in Michigan, operates a limousine service, lawyer George C. Harris said in a sworn statement filed with the downtown San Diego federal court.

Last Tuesday, Mr. X was driving from Costa Mesa to Newport Beach to pick up a passenger, Harris said. Mr. X was driving a Lincoln limousine in Newport Beach about noon when a four-door, blue Ford Fairlane drove alongside on the passenger side, Harris said.

The driver of the Fairlane fired four shots at Mr. X, Harris said. Mr. X ducked, though, and was not hit, the lawyer said.

“Fearing for his life,” Mr. X has been unable to return to his home--which he would identify last week only as an Orange County address--since the shooting, Harris said. Defense lawyers suggested that Mr. X “is not safe in the Costa Mesa area” and needs to “be maintained elsewhere” until trial, at the cost of $75 a day.

Mr. X testified last week that Robert Benjamin is his stepfather and is incredibly violent. Benjamin, a key government informant in the case against Silberman, assaulted Mr. X’s mother, raped his sister and killed a man, Mr. X said.

Lead defense lawyer James Brosnahan produced Mr. X after contending that Benjamin had made death threats against Silberman and his family. But Mr. X did not detail any such threats, and Brosnahan conceded after Mr. X’s testimony that there were no recent threats.

Silberman, however, who attended the hearing, cried and dabbed at his eyes with a handkerchief as Mr. X testified.

At Friday’s hearing, Harris told Irving that defense lawyers had “no basis (to think) that Mr. Silberman is a fugitive from justice. Our concern, given events from the last few days,” Harris said, referring to the alleged shooting, “is for his safety.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles F. Gorder Jr., the lead prosecutor in the Silberman case, who last week said there were inconsistencies in Mr. X’s testimony in open court, said Friday that Mr. X “either hallucinated” the shooting or made it up in hopes of gaining a few months’ support.

There was no police report of the Tuesday shooting until Thursday afternoon, more than two days later, Gorder said. And Mr. X initially balked at telling Orange County authorities what he knew, Gorder said.

Irving asked federal marshals, who provide court security, to investigate the alleged shooting and ask Mr. X if he was interested in their protection. But marshals reported back to Irving late Friday that Mr. X was not interested, Gorder said.