Petti Opts for Judge, Not Jury, to Hear Money-Laundering Case

Fearing he could not get a fair trial before a jury of his peers, reputed mobster Chris Petti opted Friday to have his money-laundering case heard solely by a federal judge.

Petti, 63, decided after two days of jury selection that there had been so much publicity about him, financier Richard T. Silberman and the case that 12 fair people could not be found, said Petti’s lawyer, Oscar Goodman. So, U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving will hear the case without a jury, beginning Wednesday.

Petti was indicted in April, 1989, with Silberman and three other men on charges of laundering $300,000 that an undercover FBI agent had portrayed as the profits of Colombian cocaine trafficking.

Silberman, 61, a top aide to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., was sentenced last week to 46 months in federal prison for his role in the scheme. On Tuesday, Irving tacked on an additional $50,000 fine.

Silberman was convicted June 28, after a two-month trial, of a technical currency violation. On Aug. 24, he pleaded guilty under a plea bargain to a felony conspiracy count, averting a second trial.

The three others have each pleaded guilty in the past few months to a sole felony count apiece.

Petti has pleaded not guilty to all seven counts. He is free on $250,000 bail.

It was through Petti that Silberman was introduced to the undercover FBI agent, prosecutors contend. Federal authorities stumbled onto Silberman after wiretapping Petti for months in a probe of mob interest in gaming operations at the Rincon Indian reservation.

News reports of Petti’s reputed mob ties, which have been noted in nearly every article about him, and the heavy press coverage that attended Silberman’s trial were “like a load of heavy baggage” and “made it impossible” for Petti to get a fair trial by jury, Goodman said.

Irving told Goodman at a brief hearing that he assuredly would be fair. But he also said that he was aware of numerous press reports linking Petti to organized crime.

“I don’t start this trial not knowing a great deal about you,” Irving said.

Petti declined to comment on his thoughts about the two days of jury selection, during which Goodman and Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles F. Gorder Jr., the lead prosecutor in the case, asked potential jurors about his reputation and Silberman’s trial. “You wouldn’t write it, anyway,” Petti said.

Gorder declined to comment on Petti’s decision to forgo a trial by jury.