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In his closing argument, Stephen Snyder expressed anger at what he called a “made-up case.” He said that what hospital officials considered to be threats were simply aggressive advocacy without criminal intent, and that they entrapped him. (The Daily Record/File Photo)
Trial begins in lawyer Stephen Snyder’s attempted extortion case
Listen to this articleIn his opening statement at his trial for attempted extortion, Stephen Snyder portrayed himself as an ethical lawyer who dealt fairly with adversaries on behalf of his clients and attempted in good faith to strike a deal with the University of Maryland Medical System when he found damning information about its transplant program.
UPDATE: Stephen Snyder found guilty of attempted extortion
Snyder sought $25 million as part of a consulting agreement with UMMS while representing the wife of a patient who died shortly after a kidney transplant and, according to prosecutors and UMMS officials, threatened a smear campaign.
That amount is far more than hospitals usually pay medical malpractice victims, and far more than UMMS would pay a consultant. Prosecutors say the consulting agreement was a “sham.”
UMMS settled the malpractice case for $5 million, but never agreed to the consultancy. Snyder said UMMS paid much more than it had to in an attempt to silence him with a “bribe.”
Snyder, whose slogan for years was, “Don’t just sue them — Snyder them,” claimed UMMS officials appeared open to negotiating a deal, while they had actually sought help from the FBI and were recording meetings in order to entrap Snyder.
RELATED: Snyder held in contempt, minutes after closing arguments at federal trial
“The government has turned around and Snydered me,” he said. “They Snydered me in a dishonest way.”
“Honestly, the wrong guy is being prosecuted,” he said.
Snyder, 77, is representing himself after firing lawyers who represented him earlier in the case. He faces one count of attempted extortion and seven counts under the Travel Act. (Prosecutors said Travel Act violations arise from state crimes being committed at “interstate facilities,” such as UMMS.)
Prosecutors said Snyder was only trying to enrich himself, rather than seeking justice for victims or reforming the transplant program.
In his opening statement, federal prosecutor Matt Phelps said Snyder attempted to “bully, intimidate, sweet talk, manipulate and threaten” UMMS into paying him, not his clients.
“This case is about extortion,” he told the jury. “Pay me, or else. Pay me $25 million or I will destroy you.”
“He perceived a vulnerability, and he saw dollar signs,” Phelps said.
Phelps played videos that Snyder threatened to publish if he didn’t get paid. One of them shows his client, whose body rejected the kidney that a UMMS doctor transplanted. His client had most of his right leg amputated, and parts of his fingers and legs appeared rotted and black. He died two months after the transplant.
That kidney, according to Snyder, received a 97 on the Kidney Donor Profile Index, a 1-to-100 scale that estimates the likelihood of the organ failing after transplant. He says the hospital system’s transplant program was the worst in the country, prioritizing profit over the health of patients.
Phelps also played a video of a secretly recorded 2018 meeting between Snyder and UMMS officials, who told Snyder that the arrangement felt like extortion.
“You want me not to go forward,” Snyder tells them.
DePriest Whye, CEO of the Maryland Medicine Comprehensive Insurance Program — the entity that provides insurance coverage to UMMS and pays when the system settles lawsuits — was the first witness to testify.
Whye said the videos Snyder threatened to publish were full of “inaccuracies, falsehoods and distortions,” and that they were “inflammatory.”
He said at the 2018 meeting, Snyder threatened them, and that among leadership, “There was a lot of concern at the time that this was a very serious case.”
He said Snyder threatened to get Susan Kinter, a risk management official, fired. In Snyder’s telling, it was the state of the UMMS transplant program — not his own conduct — that put her job at risk.
“It was in the context of me trying to protect her, not intimidate her,” Snyder said.
Whye replied, “What you just described sounds nice, but that’s not what happened.”
The trial, over which U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman is presiding, is scheduled to continue through next Friday, Nov. 22.
Day 6: Former client didn’t want Snyder to flip to ‘their side’ under consultancy
Day 5: Prosecution rests, Snyder tells witness to ‘go back to Fenwick’
Day 4: Snyder struggles to follow rules during cross-examination
