The mayor of Stockton, California, arrested on charges stemming from a strip poker game he is accused of playing at a summer camp he hosts for underprivileged children, said on Friday he is innocent of criminal wrongdoing.
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“He’s angry and he’s going to fight it”, said lawyer Allen Sawyer. The City of Stockton said in a statement that law enforcement are on site at the camp, presumably to keep the peace.
The mayor has denied the charges. “He absolutely intends to fight it”.
Silva was arrested in Amador County on Thursday at the camp he runs for disadvantaged kids and booked into jail.
Before becoming mayor in 2013, Silva served as executive director for the Stockton Boys and Girls Club for eight years.
“For the past week I have been raked over the coals by the media because I owned a gun and reported it missing”, Silva said.
This isn’t the first time that the anti-LGBT Republican mayor of Stockton has made the news in recent weeks.
The charges stem from an FBI search of his cellphone a year ago, after he was stopped briefly at San Francisco International Airport by authorities who confiscated his laptop and cellphone as part of an unspecified investigation. “In addition, they were persistent about requiring my passwords for all devices”.
Authorities focused primarily on four videos and 23 photos on Silva’s phone that had been taken at his 2015 camp in Stockton. Silva refused to comment or explain what he meant by that, but it is is a crime to record a conversation without the consent of both parties.
An 18-year-old woman told the investigator that all the participants in the game were naked at some point, although the mayor is heard saying he has clothes.
The charges revolve around Silva’s involvement in a strip poker game, the Stockton Record reported (http://bit.ly/2aDFiA0 ), citing information from the Amador County district attorney’s office.
The 41 year old Silva was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, eavesdropping or recording confidential communications, providing alcohol to a minor and cruelty to a child by endangering health, according to court records.
Anthony Silva, the mayor of Stockton, Calif., has a history of freakish, outlandish and questionable behavior.
“They’re not gonna find any espionage or anything like that on my computers or my cell phone, but by me giving into that sort of search, when I knew the search was illegal – and it’ll be proven that they have to give the stuff back anyways – I wasn’t protecting the rest of the American people”.
The camp, which is run and supervised by the City of Stockton, is still operational. The camp is owned by the United States Forest Service, which has leased the camp to the city for almost a century for $1 per year.
Flanked by several men, including attorneys, Silva denied the allegations brought against him by the San Joaquin County D.A.’s office.
None has ever been proved, and those who have made the accusations have always chosen to remain anonymous.
Silva is set to face a challenger, Michael Tubbs, who is now a member of the city council, in a mayoral election in November 2016.
Sawyer, who said he had not yet read the affidavit, said he found it odd that federal and local authorities would bring these felony and misdemeanor charges so close to a pending election-Silva’s arraignment would come just one month before the election.
“So why does this suddenly have to be executed now?” If they thought he was a danger or flight risk or something else, why did they allow this to transpire the way they did?
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The next day, he clarified his statement to CBS: “I think I said, I’m not African American, but I’m pretty darn close”.
