KFSN reports Mayor Anthony Silva was taken into custody on Thursday on accusations of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, providing alcohol to a person under 21 and recording confidential communications.
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“They have had all of this evidence for over a year”, said Reichel.
Silva’s lawyer, Mark Reichel, told Reuters the mayor had no intention of resigning and would defend himself against the charges in court.
Silva vigorously denied all charges while not specifically addressing whether the game occurred.
An 18-year-old woman told an investigator six counselors and the mayor were playing.
After the City of Stockton filed for bankruptcy on June 27, 2012, Silva successfully ran for mayor in 2013 as a reformer with a supposedly sterling reputation as the CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Stockton for 8 years and as a Board member of the Stockton Unified School District from 2004-2008. In light of the past three criminal probes and Silva’s arrest on charges stemming from his involvement in the alleged strip poker game at his summer camp cabin, the Stockton Police Officers Association has called for his immediate resignation as mayor.
The FBI received a warrant to search Silva’s phone late past year, according to a statement from county authorities.
Stockton, population 30,000 and located east of San Francisco, suffered record home foreclosures following the 2008 financial crisis and declared bankruptcy four years later, the largest United States city after Detroit to do so.
LGBTQ Nation reports that Mayor Silva has a history of supporting anti-LGBT initiatives, once gave “God” a key to the city of Stockton, and has even held city counsel meetings in an anti-gay megachurch during his tenure.
Silva’s charges included a felony count of secretly recording confidential communications without consent..
“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.
During that time, prosecutors allege Silva recorded a darkened video of what appeared to be a strip poker game in his bedroom at the camp, including a 16-year-old male.
“I’ve never seen the victim of a theft be trashed in the media like I have”, he said.
Silva, a Republican, is running for re-election to lead the city of 300,000 people in the Central Valley. Silva turned the badges over to Stockton police on March 21.
One of four video recordings found on Silva’s cellphone was of the strip poker game, according to an affidavit filed by a San Joaquin County investigator. The screen went black and only audio is heard after players in the room said they didn’t want to be videoed. “Witnesses stated that Silva had supplied alcohol and made it available to a number of underage counselors at camp”.
“Mayor Silva allowed and encouraged persons under 21 years of age (including a 16-year-old) to consume alcohol for the objective of getting intoxicated so he … could involve, and participate with, such persons in sexually suggestive behavior such as strip poker where such activities could be videotaped”, criminal investigator Terrance Brass wrote in a court document. She said that if either of those two scenarios happened, it is now too late to have Silva’s name removed from the ballots. Silva responds: “Yeah, she didn’t win those too good”.
Earlier in the morning, the police union endorsed Silva’s opponent in this year’s mayoral race, Michael Tubbs. Sawyer declined comment on whether there was a strip poker game.
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Prosecutors accuse Silva of serving the teen alcohol, and making an audio recording of the incident.
