Silberman Asks a Week Off From Prison

Convicted financier Richard T. Silberman, four months into his 46-month prison term, requested a week away from prison to “put his affairs in order.”

In a letter addressed to U.S. District Court Judge J. Lawrence Irving, Silberman’s attorney asked for a brief reprieve from prison for his client. In the letter, dated Oct. 30, George C. Harris said Silberman had not adequately prepared for the possibility that he would be jailed.

Silberman, Harris wrote, would like a week or less “at home to assist his wife and family in putting affairs in order and preparing for his absence. Mr. Silberman recognizes he was negligent in not having prepared better for the eventuality of his sudden remand into custody. At 61 years of age, and facing his 46-month term, even a short period of time would be of great assistance to his family.”

Judge Irving declined to comment on Silberman’s request. He is expected to decide on it this week.

Silberman, who once served as a top aide to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., was arrested April 7, 1989. He was convicted June 28 for his role in agreeing to launder money that had been represented to him as drug money.

In the letter, Harris wrote that Silberman “fully accepts his sentence and has great remorse over events that brought him” into court. Silberman, held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown San Diego, has been a “model prisoner,” the letter stated.

U.S. Atty. William Braniff also declined to comment on Silberman’s request. During court proceedings, Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles F. Gorder Jr., the chief prosecutor in the case, had described Silberman as a flight risk.