Mayor Allegedly Records Strip Poker Game at His Youth Camp

Witnesses say participants were underage camp counselors
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 4, 2016 6:53 PM CDT
Mayor Allegedly Records Strip Poker Game at His Youth Camp
Stockton mayor Anthony Silva was arrested Thursday after allegedly recording a strip poker game featuring at least one 16-year-old at a summer camp he runs.   (Clifford Oto/The Record via AP)

A California mayor has been charged with secretly recording a strip poker game featuring at least one 16-year-old, Reuters reports. The incident allegedly took place last August in Stockton mayor Anthony Silva's bedroom at the summer camp he runs for inner-city kids in need. According to the Los Angeles Times, Silva was arrested at the camp on Thursday. Prosecutors say Silva started recording the strip poker game with his cellphone then immediately set the phone down, leaving only a dark screen with audio. But they say the audio makes it clear the participants, one of whom was a 16-year-old boy, were naked and did not want to be recorded.

Silva was charged with felony eavesdropping, as well as giving alcohol to a minor, child endangerment, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Witnesses say Silva provided alcohol for the strip poker game. None of the participants, all camp counselors, were of legal drinking age. The recording was found after the FBI seized Silva's phone last September, KCRA reports. It's unclear what prompted the FBI to do that. Silva, the former CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Stockton, has been touched by a number of controversies since 2012. "He will clear his name," his lawyer tells KCRA following Thursday's charges. Silva was released on $20,000 bail after his arrest. (More eavesdropping stories.)

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