Judge Rejects Bid to Revoke Silberman Bail : Crime: The indicted businessman’s travel is restricted to California, but he will not be forced by the court to see a psychiatrist.

A federal judge Tuesday rejected a request by prosecutors to revoke Richard T. Silberman’s $500,000 bail, but restricted the indicted financier’s travels to California and ordered him to call court authorities three times a week.

U. S. District Judge Leland C. Nielsen also ruled that there is no reason for prosecutors to force the San Diego businessman to see a court-ordered psychiatrist, because Silberman is now resting at a San Francisco psychiatric clinic after a suicide attempt.

Responding to intense publicity in the wake of Silberman’s two-day disappearance and attempted suicide earlier this month, Nielsen also said he will consider imposing a gag order on attorneys in the money-laundering case. The judge also chastised Silberman’s defense lawyer for suggesting that Silberman could not get a fair trial.

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, the day Silberman was reported missing, alleges that the former top aide to Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. confessed to the money-laundering scheme. Silberman was not in court Tuesday.

The 60-year-old Silberman abruptly vanished Feb. 15 from San Diego and was found unconscious two days later in a Las Vegas hotel room. After leaving a suicide note, he tried to kill himself with an overdose of sleeping pills, his wife, San Diego County Supervisor Susan Golding, said at a press conference last week.

Immediately after being released Feb. 19 from a Las Vegas hospital, Silberman checked himself into the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, a UC San Francisco hospital known nationally for its treatment. Hospital officials maintain that state law bars them from providing information about his condition.

On Feb. 20, federal prosecutors claimed that Silberman’s trip to Las Vegas suggested he was a flight risk, and they asked U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving, who has been presiding over the case, to revoke Silberman’s $500,000 bail.

In the same legal papers, they asked Irving to order Silberman to see a psychiatrist. That request was made two days before Golding disclosed her husband’s whereabouts.

Irving remains on the case, but Nielsen was appointed to run matters while Irving undergoes surgery.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles F. Gorder Jr., the lead prosecutor in the case, told Nielsen on Tuesday that there are many factors indicating Silberman is likely to abruptly leave San Diego again, this time to escape trial.

Among those, he said, is the abruptness of the Las Vegas trip, Golding’s apparent lack of knowledge about it beforehand and the circumstances of Silberman’s discovery.

Gorder also disclosed a new detail at the hearing. Before he left, Silberman wrote and left for Golding several letters at their La Jolla house, including one to Werner Wenger, whom Gorder called a “mysterious figure in this case.”

Wenger, a Swiss attorney and longtime Silberman business associate, had signing authority on an account--the Hong Kong bank account of a Panamanian company--that prosecutors have alleged was essential to the money-laundering scheme.

In the letter, Silberman asked Wenger to “take care” of his estate as well as various accounts and fees, Gorder said. Golding did not turn that letter over to police, Gorder said.

Gorder did not elaborate on the letter or its significance and declined to comment about it after the hearing.

Defense attorney James J. Brosnahan, meanwhile, said there is “nothing about the circumstances of the trip” that suggests Silberman is likely to flee. Silberman had been allowed to travel freely in the United States, Brosnahan said, and used his own name to buy his airline tickets to Las Vegas and to register at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Without explanation, Nielsen restricted Silberman’s travel to California. He also ordered that Silberman report by phone to court authorities every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after his release from the clinic.

As for the request to force Silberman to see a psychiatrist, Nielsen said that is not necessary since Silberman is already under medical care at Langley Porter. The judge did order Victor I. Reus, the doctor in charge of Silberman’s treatment, to provide a report detailing his training and background.

Reus, reached at his San Francisco office Tuesday, declined to comment on Silberman’s condition or treatment.

Brosnahan said after the hearing that Silberman’s treatment includes “taking it easy” and “a lot” of family visits. Brosnahan said he can’t tell yet whether Silberman will be ready for the scheduled April 10 trial date.

Nielsen also said he wants prosecutors and defense attorneys to report back to him Thursday with suggestions about a gag order.

Finally, Nielsen said he was “shocked” when he heard Brosnahan had told reporters in Las Vegas that Silberman was worried that he could not get a fair trial before Irving.

In Las Vegas, Brosnahan also said that Silberman’s concern, as well as his disappearance, were prompted by Irving’s comment that statements Silberman allegedly made to FBI agents upon arrest were “self-incriminating.”