Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva Speaks Out Against Criminal Allegations

STOCKTON (CBS13) — Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva spoke out Friday against criminal allegations stemming from an alleged recording involving a strip poker game.

Silva was arrested in Amador County on Thursday at the camp he runs for disadvantaged kids and booked into jail. He was released hours later.

Flanked by several men, including attorneys, Silva denied the allegations brought against him by the San Joaquin County D.A.'s office. Charges against Silva include a felony eavesdropping charge of recording confidential communications and misdemeanors of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, furnishing alcohol to a person under the age of 21 and child endangerment.

An FBI search of Silva's cellphone reportedly included 23 photographs and four video clips taken in August of 2015 at around the time of Silva's camp.

"Number one, everyone there was 18 years old. Number two, I never, ever, ever, ever endangered a child…ever. Number three, I never provided alcohol to anyone, and I certainly didn't secretly record anyone," Silva said during the press conference.

Silva went on to say the FBI used illegal methods to obtain the clip of the party with camp counselors, he says, that only lasted a minute.

"These allegations are the result of a year-long probe into my life by a task force. They used Homeland Security illegally to seize my cellphone and laptops under the border doctorate and hand everything over to the task force for inspection. They subsequently returned my laptops, but kept the data from the cellphone. A forensic examination of a lifetime of messages, emails, videos and pictures produced an audio recording of a counselor party that lasted about a minute in length.

Silva compared the allegations to TV drama, calling the charges politically motivated.

A Stockton city councilman and the Stockton Police Officers Association have called on Silva to resign after his arrest.

"For the past three and a half years, Mayor Anthony Silva has had misstep after misstep, and they have been shrugged off. This time, it is different," the police officers association said in a prepared statement.

Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe says his office was just made aware of the allegation on July 26.