MAYORAL MISDEEDS

Antigay Politician Busted For Boozing, Playing Strip Poker With Teen Boys

mayor anthony silva
Mayor Anthony Silva mugshot.

Another antigay, “family values,” conservative Christian politician has been caught in a sex scandal.

Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva has been arrested for allegedly playing strip poker with teenagers, including a 16-year-old boy.

Silva, 41, was arrested Thursday morning at Silver Lake in the Sierra Nevada, where he was conducting his annual camp for disadvantaged inner-city children, called Mayor’s Youth Camp, Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe told the Sacramento Bee.

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The incident reportedly occurred on Aug. 7, 2015, and resulted in the felony charge of recording confidential communications, and three misdemeanors: contributing to the delinquency of a minor, furnishing alcohol to a person under 21 and child endangerment.

“This comes from an FBI investigation that we became aware of last Tuesday,” Riebe said. “These charges stem from that investigation.”

Silva’s possessions were searched and a cellphone and laptop confiscated after federal agents intercepted him upon returning to San Francisco from China.

A video on Silva’s phone contained audio but not visual evidence of a strip poker game involving a a 16-year-old boy, an 18-year-old woman, a 19-year-old woman and two 19-year-old men. The 18-year-old woman told investigators that “all of the participants in the strip poker game at some point were naked.”

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Investigators also discovered photographs that appeared to show minors playing beer pong.

“Mayor Silva allowed and encouraged persons under 21 years of age (including a 16-year-old) to consume alcohol for the purpose 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.

Silva, who held official town hall meetings at an antigay megachurch and once gave the key to the city to God has faced previous allegations of sexual misconduct.

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A 2005 police report alleges that Silva, who previously coached water polo, secretly taped girls in his bathroom and changing at his home. In 2011, a former female employee of Silva’s alleged that her pressured her to drink alcohol and touched her buttocks.

Both incidents were investigated and no charges were filed.

Earlier this year, Silva learned that a gun he lost, and failed to report missing for a month or more, was used in the killing of a 13-year-old boy last year.

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