Seven years after he turned down a plea agreement and declined to testify at his own trial, Steven A. Silvers took the stand in federal court yesterday and admitted to laundering drug profits, delivering cocaine and collecting drug payments.
His extraordinary, last-minute testimony was part of a hearing he hoped would overturn his 1988 conviction for operating a criminal enterprise and get him a new trial or at least get a new sentencing hearing.
Silvers has charged that he was wrongly convicted on drug-kingpin charges because a prosecution witness lied during his trial. Prosecutors have acknowledged that the witness lied, but have said there was plenty of other evidence to justify Silvers' conviction.
Silvers was sentenced to 35 years without parole for his involvement in a drug ring that supplied dealers in Western Maryland and Virginia with drugs from South America and the Caribbean. At the time, his sentence was the longest in Maryland for a drug violation.
Silvers surprised his lawyer, Gerald C. Ruter, with the decision to testify shortly before closing arguments were to begin.
"He told me that for him it was a catharsis," Mr. Ruter said, while declining to comment on the possible effect of Silvers' testimony.
Silvers was so eager to tell his story that Judge Maletz had to repeatedly admonish him to limit his answers.
"It does not advance your interest by volunteering additional information," he told Silvers late in the day.
By then, Silvers had already admitted to traveling to Maryland to deliver cocaine and to collect payments. He also testified about laundering profits for several drug importers through his Florida talent agency and recording studio, and about running parts of the drug ring.
"There comes a time in someone's life when they have to own up to what they did, and that's what I'm doing here today." Silvers admitted that he "minimized" his role in the drug ring to prosecutors and to his own defense lawyer in 1987 and 1988 to avoid incriminating himself, because he was "scared."
Despite his admissions, Silvers still contested his role as a "drug kingpin." His testimony may continue today.