Silberman Judge Imposes Partial Gag Order

A federal judge imposed a partial gag order Thursday on lawyers involved in the money-laundering case of prominent San Diego businessman Richard T. Silberman.

U.S. District Judge Leland C. Nielsen, who had indicated at a hearing Tuesday that he was receptive to the notion of restraining pretrial talk, signed an order Thursday limiting what prosecution and defense attorneys can say about the case.

Among the six restricted categories are comments about the expected testimony or reputation of a witness, the contents of any confession and the strengths or weaknesses of either side’s case.

Neither U.S. Atty. Charles F. Gorder Jr., the lead prosecutor in the case, nor San Francisco lawyer James J. Brosnahan, Silberman’s defense attorney, could be reached Thursday for comment on the order.

Silberman, reputed mobster Chris Petti and three other men are charged with laundering $300,000 given them by an undercover FBI agent, who allegedly told them that the money came from Colombian drug trafficking. Silberman’s trial is scheduled to begin April 10.

An FBI report released Feb. 16 alleges that Silberman, a former top aide to Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., confessed to the money-laundering scheme.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Nielsen indicated he might impose a partial gag order because of the intense publicity that surrounded Silberman’s two-day disappearance and attempted suicide last month.

Silberman, 60, abruptly vanished Feb. 15 from San Diego and was found two days later in a Las Vegas hotel room, unconscious. After leaving a suicide note, he tried to kill himself with an overdose of sleeping pills, according to his wife, Susan Golding, a San Diego County supervisor.

Immediately after being released Feb. 19 from a Las Vegas hospital, Silberman checked into the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, a UC San Francisco hospital known nationally for its treatment.

It is not known whether the hospital stay will delay his April 10 trial date. Petti and the three others are scheduled to be tried July 17.

Nielsen’s order marked a turnabout from the policy maintained by the judge presiding over the case, U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving. He had declined to issue a gag order despite the widespread press the case has generated since Silberman was arrested last April 7 at a Mission Bay hotel room.