In this Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016, booking mug released by the Amador County Sheriff’s Office is Anthony Silva, the mayor of Stockton, Calif.
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That may be an understatement.
His lawyer, Mark Reichel, said in a statement that the timing was ideal to besmirch the Stockton mayor’s name who is running for reelection in November against a close competitor, City Councilman Michael Tubbs. He said he thinks he has “an idea” of who stole that one though it has yet to be recovered. “Quite frankly, I could be determined to be the first African American mayor of Stockton”.
In 2014, he was handcuffed after a fight broke out in a limousine.
The summer camp Silva has run since prior to being elected mayor is in neighboring Amador County.
Silva had another gun stolen from his home in February of this year.
“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.
An attorney for the mayor questioned the timing of the accusations.
But there was no writing off what happened Thursday.
Silva was charged with a felony of secretly recording confidential communications without consent and three misdemeanor charges: contributing to the delinquency of a minor, providing alcohol to people under 21 and child endangerment. Passengers claimed a drunken Silva made an inappropriate advance on a woman in the vehicle.
Silva posted bail and planned on returning to the camp to help clean up what remains on the camp site.
The allegations were a bit of a shocker. Previously he served as president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Stockton and also served as a board member on the Stockton Unified District Board of Education.
Finally, he operated the Silver Lake Camp, a camp for disadvantaged youth.
Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva was arrested Thursday at his youth camp on charges that he played strip poker with minors and provided youngsters with alcohol, according to authorities.
Police said he filmed the game against their will.
But the investigation began long before now.
Even if Mayor Silva resigns or is found guilty before the election, which is still months away, his name will still remain on the election ballot, according to Stockton City Clerk Bonnie Paige.
In October, federal officers confiscated his cellphone and two of his laptop computers, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Silva denied a prosecutor’s claim that he had refused to talk to investigators at his home about the gun theft, though he said he did refer them to his lawyer.
Police found 23 photographs and four video clips that were recorded between August 3 and August 9, 2015, at the Silver Lake Camp, according to a statement by prosecutors reported by the the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets.
Court documents show one participant, a 16-year-old, was completely naked and that prosecutors have audio evidence of the strip poker game. The video contains mostly audio after players in the room said they didn’t want to be video recorded, Riebe said. One of the participants was a 16-year-old male.
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The newspaper reported on its website that agents from the FBI, San Joaquin County District Attorney’s office and Stockton Police Department were at the city-leased Silver Lake Camp. He was charged with recording camp counselors playing poker without their knowledge. District Attorney Todd Riebe rejected the mayor’s declaration that counselors were all over 18, saying that investigators know the minor’s date of birth and that witnesses put the minor at the party.
