The Latest: Prosecutor: Audio of strip game on mayor’s phone

SAN FRANCISCO – The Latest on the arrest of a California mayor (all times local):

4 p.m.

Authorities say a California mayor was arrested after an FBI search of his cellphone turned up an audio recording of a strip poker game at a youth camp last year.

Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe said Thursday the recording from the cellphone of Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva contains mostly audio after players in the room said they didn’t want to be video recorded.

The district attorney said the 41-year-old mayor was in the room and participants indicated they were naked.

Riebe said a 16-year-old male was present. The others were at least 18 and under 21, and included about half a dozen young men and women who were counsellors at the camp.

Authorities say the game took place in Silva’s bedroom at the Stockton Silver Lake Camp, which the mayor hosts for disadvantaged children.

Silva was charged with felony recording of confidential communications and misdemeanour counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and child endangerment.

Allen Sawyer, an attorney for Silva, said his client denies the charges. Sawyer later said he had not discussed details of the charges with his client.

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2 p.m.

The mayor of Stockton, California, was charged Thursday with providing alcohol to minors last summer — an act authorities said came during a strip poker game at a camp for underprivileged children run by the mayor, a newspaper reported.

Mayor Anthony Silva, 42, was charged in Amador County with eavesdropping, contributing to the delinquency or a minor, providing alcohol to a minor and cruelty to a child by endangering health, his lawyer Mark Reichel told The Associated Press.

The charges revolve around Silva’s involvement in a strip poker game, the Stockton Record reported (http://bit.ly/2aDFiA0 ), citing information from the Amador County district attorney’s office.

Silva was free on bail and Reichel said he will plead not guilty.

Prosecutors and sheriff’s officials did not return calls from the AP seeking further details.

Allen Sawyer, another attorney for Silva, told the AP his client will be allowed to return to the summer camp to finish the season.

“He’s absolutely denies these charges, he’s angry and he’s going to fight it,” Sawyer said. “But his biggest concern right now is not to disrupt the at-risk youth up at the camp.”

Silva is seeking a second term in November as mayor of the river port city of 300,000 people.

Before Silva was charged, the Stockton Police Officers Association endorsed his opponent Michael Tubbs, citing his commitment to co-operation with police in establishing good practices, the newspaper reported.

The charges came a week after the newspaper reported that a gun stolen from Silva’s home during a burglary was linked to the killing of 13-year-old Rayshawn Harris in Stockton early last year. The mayor is accused of not reporting the gun as missing until a month after the boy was killed.

Reichel said Silva had nothing to do with the killing and was simply the victim of a crime when his gun was taken.