UPDATE 2:15 p.m.: (AP) – Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva has forcefully declared his innocence and says he never endangered children amid allegations that he made secret audio recording of strip game at youth camp run by him. He is also accused of providing alcohol to underage people at the Stockton Silver Lake Camp.
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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. He has been employed working with children and teens in some respect for much of his adult life.
According to his government website, Silva has spent a majority of his career working with kids.
Prosecutors said he used his cellphone to make an audio recording of the game without the consent of others.
“I was a victim of theft”, Silva said on Friday, adding he let police know when the gun initially went missing and formally reported it stolen once it was clear the weapon was not merely misplaced. Authorities charged him (in a case unrelated to the shooting) of eavesdropping and recording confidential communications, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, furnishing an alcoholic beverage to a minor and cruelty to a child by endangering health.
CBS reports Silva’s cellphone was seized by the FBI and investigators zeroed in on four videos and 23 photos.
The FBI received a warrant to search Silva’s phone late previous year, according to a statement from county authorities.
Silva claimed that his computer and phone were illegally seized.
The mayor, who is running for reelection in November, said the charges were politically motivated.
The contents included almost two dozen photographs of people who appeared to be under 21 in possession of alcohol or near alcohol, said Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe.
Witnesses also told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that Silva had provided alcohol to the half-dozen male and female camp counselors, five of whom were at least 18 and under 21.
Prosecutors and sheriff’s officials did not return calls from the AP seeking further details.
“They have had all of this evidence for over a year”.
Anti-gay, family values mayor busted playing strip poker with minors.
An affidavit by a San Joaquin County investigator does not identify the two women and three males it says were playing strip poker in the mayor’s bedroom in August 2015.
Mayor Silva has had three criminal probes undertaken into his activities in the past.
The Stockton police union is among those calling for his resignation.
In 2014, after a fight in a limousine, the mayor was handcuffed but never arrested.
One clip “contains audio of a conversation between participants involved in a strip poker game that occurred in Silva’s bedroom”, the statement read.
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.
“The mayor’s position is that this is false and that he’s going to fight it, and he’s innocent and that he wants his day in court”, Sawyer told Ars.
The city of Stockton dispatched their parks and recreation department to take over the camp following Silva’s arrest Thursday.
Before Silva was charged, the Stockton Police Officers Association endorsed his opponent Michael Tubbs, citing his commitment to cooperation with police in establishing good practices.
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He is accused of providing teenagers with alcohol during a strip poker game at the city-owned campground last summer.
