When Stephen Bartlett and his wife arrived at The Capital Grille near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in March 2018, the host told Bartlett that medical malpractice attorney Stephen L. Snyder was waiting for him at the bar.

In testimony at Snyder’s federal trial on Tuesday, Bartlett recalled Snyder asking a host at the bar to deliver him a package when Bartlett arrived.

The package contained “bloody photographs” of someone undergoing a medical procedure that Snyder said were part of a lawsuit Bartlett filed against the University of Maryland Medical System, where he worked as a transplant surgeon.

“He said the client was crazy and wanted revenge on the hospital system,” Bartlett testified, adding that Snyder talked about a video he would release “if I didn’t cooperate with him.”

“He wanted the hospital system to hire him in some capacity, perhaps as a consultant, for $25 million,” Bartlett testified.

Bartlett’s testimony broke the heart of the government’s case against the 77-year-old Snyder. accused of attempted extortion and seven counts of violating the federal Travel Act., This prohibits the use of the U.S. mail or interstate or foreign travel for the purpose of extortion, among other criminal acts.

His trial began Wednesday with testimony from another doctor from the Maryland health system who recalled several meetings in which Snyder raised the possibility of a $25 million consulting deal.

Prosecutors said Snyder threatened to launch an aggressive media campaign accusing the hospital system of transplanting diseased organs without patients’ knowledge. Snyder offered his silence for $25 million under the guise of a consulting agreement, even though he never planned to do any work for the hospital system.

“Every interaction he had with the University of Maryland was carefully planned,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Phelps told jurors. opening remarks.

‘We continue at full speed’

At The Capital Grille, Snyder and Bartlett chatted at the bar for about 15-20 minutes and then went to the table to eat with their wives. Bartlett and his wife, June Jaekels, testified.

The couple said their small talk at the table about their vacation home, Snyder’s Rolls Royce and the potential for their families to spend Passover together took a sour turn. They said Snyder was sweating, his face was red and his eyes were bloodshot, and he was “very excited.”

“‘As long as he does what I say, he’ll be fine,'” Bartlett recalled Snyder saying. “He repeated that over and over again.”

Jaekels said he interpreted Snyder’s refrain as a threat and that it “scared” him.

Bartlett said he felt “sick inside” from the dinner.

But in the days and weeks that followed, Snyder sent text messages to Bartlett while pressuring him to forward his offer to other hospital system officials.

“If I don’t get a straight answer, I’m going full force,” Snyder texted Bartlett on April 8.

And in a later text, Snyder wrote: “If it weren’t for my friendship with you, I would be following this GOLD MINE.”

Bartlett testified that he does not consider Snyder a friend, although Snyder stated as much in his opening statement on Wednesday. Bartlett resigned as hospital system’s chief medical officer — and one of the highest-paid employees in Maryland in 2019 — and currently works at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Snyder described himself to the jury as the victim of a malicious investigation.

He spent much of his hour-long opening statement going over the accolades he received as a lawyer and discussing his philanthropic efforts. He claimed that he entered into a consulting agreement at the request of his client, who lost her husband to complications from a kidney transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Lawyers and consultancy agreement

Snyder also said he is consulting with attorneys about a potential consulting deal.

Eric Yaffe, the ethics attorney Snyder hired, billed Snyder $50,000 for his firm’s services.

“I advised S. Snyder (sic) to be careful in making any dealings with the hospital,” Yaffe wrote in a June 2018 billing memo.

“Be careful,” Yaffe said in testimony Thursday, citing the potential for the deal to look like extortion.

His colleague John McNutt emailed Snyder on June 21, 2018; This was the day before Snyder met with hospital system officials and formally proposed the consulting agreement.

“(sic) any consulting agreement with the hospital must have the full consent of the client,” read the header on the email, in which the attorneys suggested Snyder give two-thirds of the proceeds of the deal to the client.

Prosecutors say Snyder kept the offer from his client; Snyder claims he proposed the deal at his client’s request.

Alicia Reynolds, senior manager of claims for the Maryland Medical Comprehensive Insurance Program, the hospital system’s insurance provider, took notes of the June 22, 2018 meeting with Snyder. Prosecutors had the jury read portions of his notes Thursday.

“Ms. S. would have known she didn’t deserve that dollar for her case,” Reynolds wrote, paraphrasing Snyder’s words during the meeting.

Reynolds said “nothing about this meeting was typical” and that it left him and his colleagues feeling “very shaken, threatened.”

He added that Snyder showed them a video ad and threatened to release it if the hospital system did not meet his demands.

“The facts were one-sided,” Reynolds said. “There was a spin on them. They are designed to inflame.

Represented by an attorney on hand to assist, Snyder questioned Reynolds for hours. He asked if he was the greatest enemy the hospital system faced.

“Respectfully, no,” Reynolds responded.

‘The dignity of the courtroom’

Snyder asked Reynolds about his reputation as a plaintiff’s attorney. He also asked about $12.5 million and $10 million settlements with the hospital system.

But for the second day in a row, Snyder’s line of questioning turned confrontational, prompting multiple objections from prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman intervened several times, ordering Snyder to refrain from using cross-examination as an opportunity to plead his case to the jury.

Before testifying Thursday, Boardman asked Snyder when he last argued a case in front of a jury. He warned him against illegal questions.

“I can’t let you do this at the expense of the dignity of the courtroom,” Boardman said.

“To be frank, Your Honor, federal court is different than state court,” Snyder responded.

The judge added that he had the power to hold him in contempt of court and revoke his right to represent himself if he continued.

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