A federal judge held medical malpractice attorney Stephen L. Snyder in contempt of court Thursday at the close of his attempted extortion trial and ordered him jailed overnight.

U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman said Snyder repeatedly violated court orders during his closing argument, after violating her mandates every day throughout his weeklong trial, leaving her no choice but to hold him in contempt to protect “the dignity” of the court.

When he was cross-examining witnesses during the trial, Snyder, who is representing himself at 77, often veered into statements that sounded more like testimony than questions. Boardman warned him every morning to stop testifying during his questions and told him the same before closing arguments Thursday.

“His attempt to testify and give unsworn testimony during his closing argument was obvious,” Boardman said.

She ordered him remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service overnight.

When the judge finished speaking, Snyder begged her to listen to him present evidence of his medical problems.

“I have at least 10 issues… You’re putting me in a very precarious position,” Snyder said.

Boardman said he could tell the marshals about his medical issues, like any other defendant.

“You’re remanded to the custody of the marshals and I will see you in the morning,” Boardman said.

The stunning turn of events Thursday evening followed closing arguments in the case.

It’s now up to a federal jury to decide whether Stephen L. Snyder was acting as a tough malpractice attorney or as a calculated extortionist when heproposed a $25 million consulting deal with the University of Maryland Medical System in 2018.

Attorneys in the case finished presenting closing arguments to jurors Thursday afternoon, following a trial featuring more than a dozen witnesses.

Prosecutors say Snyder attempted to extort the hospital system by demanding it pay him $25 million to not go forward with a disparaging media campaign accusing doctors of transplanting diseased organs into patients without their knowledge.

“He said ‘Pay me $25 million for my silence’ … The defendant more than crossed the line of being an advocate,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Evelyn Cusson told jurors.

‘It’s an absolute made-up case’

Snyder claims he proposed the consulting agreement at the request of a client whose husband died after a kidney transplant at the hospital system’s flagship institution, the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. Snyder said he was not guilty because he consulted lawyers about the agreement.

“It’s an absolute made-up case full of fraud,” Snyder told jurors Thursday.

His closing argument repeatedly delved into topics not admitted into evidence, drawing objections from prosecutors and, sometimes, scoldings from Boardman.

The government’s case focused on three 2018 meetings between Snyder and the hospital system.

At the first meeting in April of that year, Snyder proposed the hospital system pay $25 million to settle the case of his client whose husband died after a kidney transplant. At the second meeting two months later, Snyder maintained the hospital system had to pay millions to resolve his client’s case but asked for an additional $25 million payout for him personally.

An attorney who worked for Snyder testified that Snyder prepared for each meeting by dictating a script and having one of his staffers transcribe it. Snyder did as much ahead of a June 22, 2018, meeting, the attorney testified.

If Snyder went on his media campaign, Snyder wrote ahead of the meeting, “it will have a devastating effect on the hospital.”

“You are playing with fire and we are asking only for $25 million and you get rid of me and my client,” Snyder’s dictated script said. He added later in the notes, “The only way that you will get confidentiality is if the whole deal is effectuated.”

Hospital system officials testified Snyder’s demands left them stunned and described his actions as something they’d never before encountered from a plaintiff’s lawyer.

“I was shaking. We were blown away. I felt very much like Mr. Snyder was trying to extort money from us,” said Susan Kinter, vice president of claims, litigation and risk management at Maryland Medicine Comprehensive Insurance Program, the hospital system’s insurance provider.

Prosecutors said the information Snyder planned to release was misleading.

“He took a kernel of information he learned representing a client and then he twisted it to try to broker a side deal for himself,” Cusson told the jury.

‘The good reputations of other people’

The attorney who worked for Snyder, Kevin D. Stern, testified Snyder instructed him to delete his notes from the June meeting once he found out he was under investigation. Stern didn’t delete his notes, and prosecutors showed them to the jury.

Kinter and her colleagues contacted a lawyer she’d worked with years ago, former Baltimore State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein. With Bernstein’s assistance, the hospital system officials connected with federal law enforcement.

Snyder had consulted with several lawyers before the August meeting.

Prominent Baltimore attorney Andrew Jay Graham testified he advised Snyder that a consulting agreement would be legal and ethical, so long as both sides wanted it. Eric Yaffe, an ethics attorney who Snyder also consulted with, told Snyder to “be careful” because the agreement could appear like extortion.

Graham’s firm sent Snyder a draft agreement the day before Snyder was scheduled to meet with hospital officials, Aug. 23, 2018, leaving blank spaces for the amount of money to be paid to him and a description of the services to be provided.

Snyder said in closing arguments that he offered to allow Graham to meet with UMMS lawyers without him present and to have Graham at his meetings with hospital officials.

“I wouldn’t want a witness there to watch me commit extortion,” Snyder said.

Prosecutors say Snyder didn’t tell his lawyers everything he was doing, including withholding the fact that he threatened a disparaging media campaign.

“He is trying to trade on the good reputations of other people,” Cusson told the jury. “But Mr. Snyder never really relied on Mr. Graham, he used him for cover.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office previously declined to prosecute Snyder because he consulted an attorney, according to a court document recently unsealed in the case. A prosecutor in the office in 2018 believed Snyder’s consulting attorneys showed he lacked “criminal intent.” A different prosecutor later disagreed, securing an indictment against Snyder in 2020.

After UMMS reached out, the FBI taped several calls from Snyder to Kinter. At the meeting in August between Snyder and the hospital system, two agents covertly recorded the meeting and watched from another room.

Snyder told hospital officials they would benefit from hiring him because he wouldn’t be able to bring any more medical malpractice cases, as he would have a conflict of interest, according to video of the meeting played in court.

“You want me not to go forward. The question is: How do we do it?” Snyder said at the meeting, according to a video of it played at trial

“If I’m them, I’m thinking, ‘God, this sounds like extortion,’ ” responded Dr. DePriest Whye, CEO of the hospital system’s insurance provider, referring to hospital board members.

“I wanted to make sure it is not perceived as extortion,” Snyder answered.

Snyder argued that the hospital system entrapped him because officials never informed him they had no intention of hiring him, leading him to believe they also wanted a deal. Hospital officials testified they went along with Snyder both because they were afraid he would launch his public relations blitz if they said no, and federal law enforcement told them to keep engaging him.

“An effort was made by University of Maryland to entrap me into criminality,” Snyder said.

In recorded conversations with Kinter, Snyder pressured her to arrange an opportunity for him to present the consulting agreement to the hospital board. They had a meeting tentatively scheduled for September, and Snyder prepared for it, as usual, by dictating a script.

In the script, he said the hospital system could use his services as much or as little as they wanted. He said if they imposed “impediments,” he would go on the media campaign.

“In no way, shape or form should it be considered as a fee to keep me quiet, i.e. hush money,” Snyder planned to tell the board. “That would be the result but not the premise of the financial contract engagement if asked.”

The hospital system canceled the meeting because law enforcement told them to.

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