Silberman’s Competency, Bond Are Questioned

Federal prosecutors asked Tuesday that Richard T. Silberman’s $500,000 bond be revoked, saying that there was “no reason” to believe that the prominent San Diego businessman, who disappeared last week for two days, would show up for his upcoming money-laundering trial.

In legal papers that shed light on Silberman’s trail during the two days after he vanished from San Diego and before he was found unconscious in a Las Vegas hotel room, prosecutors also demanded that Silberman see a psychiatrist. It was possible, prosecutors said, that Silberman had “lost all touch with reality” and was no longer mentally able to stand trial.

U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving, who is presiding over the case, set a hearing for next Tuesday on the unusual requests.

As prosecutors moved to revoke Silberman’s bail, legal experts dismissed the contention that Silberman can’t get a fair trial before Irving, a claim raised by Silberman’s lead defense lawyer, James Brosnahan. Silberman’s disappearance was prompted by Irving’s comment that Silberman made “self-incriminating” statements upon arrest, Brosnahan said over the weekend in Las Vegas.

But specialists in legal procedure, including a current and former federal judge, said that Irving’s characterization of the evidence as “self-incriminating” was common and did not suggest that Irving was biased. Federal prosecutors said that Brosnahan’s comments were “outrageous” and recommended that he be censured at next Tuesday’s hearing.

Silberman, who is scheduled to stand trial April 10 on charges stemming from a complex money-laundering case, could not be reached Tuesday for comment and it was not known where he went after leaving a Las Vegas hospital Monday.

Brosnahan did not return phone calls Tuesday to his San Francisco office. Irving’s law clerk said Tuesday the judge could not comment on any particular case.

Silberman, reputed mobster Chris Petti and three other men are charged with laundering $300,000 given them by an undercover FBI agent who had characterized it as proceeds from a Colombian drug dealer. An FBI report released Friday, the day Silberman was reported missing, alleges that Silberman confessed to taking part in the money-laundering scheme.

Silberman was found by police early Saturday night at the Las Vegas Hilton. He was lying unconscious in bed, and Brosnahan said Monday that Silberman had swallowed an unknown number of prescription sleeping pills.

Police discovered Silberman in his hotel room after a two-day search.

It began when Silberman, a former top aide to Democratic Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., told his family he was leaving San Diego to have dinner and meet with an attorney in Orange County. Instead, Silberman flew from Lindbergh Field to Los Angeles, then took a Delta Airlines flight to Las Vegas.

Shortly before he left Thursday, Silberman transferred “a sizable sum of money”--the proceeds from the sale of one of his houses--from an account he controlled to an account to which his wife had access, prosecutors said Tuesday in their legal brief. Sources have told The Times that the amount may be as much as $1 million.

Silberman’s wife, Susan Golding, is a San Diego County supervisor who apparently was unaware of his trip to Las Vegas and reported him missing.

When he got to Las Vegas, Silberman checked into the Hilton under his own name, arranged to pay his bill with cash, and requested that no one be told that he was at the hotel, Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles F. Gorder Jr. said in the brief filed Tuesday.

Questions remain about Silberman’s arrival at the hotel. While Silberman’s hotel tab shows a 6 p.m. check-in time, Brosnahan said Monday that the indicted financier did not arrive at the hotel until much closer to midnight Thursday.

At 4 p.m. Friday, a maid at the hotel tried to enter Silberman’s fifth-floor room but found the door blocked by furniture, Gorder said. Eventually the maid got into the room, saw that Silberman was all right, and left him, Gorder said.

The next day, Saturday, after learning of Silberman’s disappearance, prosecutors asked Irving to revoke the $500,000 bail. At 5:30 p.m. Saturday, as the lawyers and Irving began a telephone conference, Brosnahan said that Silberman had been found minutes before.

Prosecutors immediately asked that Irving order Silberman to return to San Diego, but Irving declined at the time, Gorder said in the brief. Irving then told the lawyers on both sides to “restrict their public comments” to the fact that Silberman had been found and that the telephone conference had taken place, Gorder said.

In formally renewing the request to revoke Silberman’s bond, Gorder said Tuesday there were a number of factors indicating that Silberman was likely to flee again, this time to escape trial. Included, Gorder said, were the sale of the house and transfer of funds, the flight to Las Vegas, Golding’s apparent lack of knowledge about the trip, and the circumstances surrounding Silberman’s discovery.

If the bond is not revoked, it should at least be changed to restrict Silberman’s travels to San Diego County, Gorder said. In addition, Gorder said, the bond, presently unsecured, should be made “fully secured” and Silberman should be required to check in daily with court officers.

Meanwhile, Gorder said, the circumstances of the Las Vegas trip and Silberman’s “possible suicide attempt” raise so many questions about Silberman’s mental state that he should be forced to see a psychiatrist, to learn if he is mentally competent to stand trial.

“Certainly if, as (Brosnahan) has described to the press, (Silberman) fled to Las Vegas and attempted suicide because (Irving) characterized his post-arrest statements as ‘incriminating,’ (Silberman) has lost all touch with reality,” Gorder said.

Raul A. Ramirez, a federal judge in Sacramento who resigned Jan. 1 to return to private practice, said it was “ludicrous” to suggest that Irving could not be fair because the judge labeled statements Silberman allegedly made to FBI agents “self-incriminating.”

“It’s a Catch-22 situation here,” Ramirez said Tuesday. “The defendant files a motion that says, ‘Suppress or exclude my statements.’ Then, when the judge makes a decision on that legalistic question, as he must, he (the defendant) says, ‘Aha, you ruled against me and you must be biased or prejudiced.’

“Well . . . that’s ludicrous. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. You can’t seek a legal ruling and then allege the judge is biased or prejudiced because of an adverse ruling.”

Ramirez added, “The fact that a judge characterizes evidence as self-incriminating is a term of art that means the investigation focused on this defendant, that investigating officers realized he was the focus and therefore gave him his Miranda rights and that the party who was the target understood those rights and knowingingly and voluntarily waived those rights. Which in plain English means he made a confession.”

Laurence A. Benner, a professor and criminal procedure expert at California Western law school in San Diego, said Tuesday that ethical rules suggest--but do not require--that a judge be excused from a case when the judge’s impartiality might be questioned. Among those cases, Benner said, were those where a judge has a personal bias toward someone in the case.

Judge Gordon Thompson Jr., San Diego’s chief federal judge, said Tuesday that, despite Brosnahan’s contention, there was no reason to believe Irving was biased toward Silberman. “I don’t think there’s any question in that there’s no impropriety in the way the case has been handled so far,” Thompson said.

Times staff writer Richard A. Serrano contributed to this report.