FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The case of a former Lauderdale-by-the-Sea the town commissioner, fireplace leader and “volunteer Santa Claus” accused of possessing child sexual abuse material is now in the fingers of federal prosecutors, Local 10 News has discovered.
Officials with the Broward State Attorney’s Office showed that federal government are now dealing with the case in opposition to James Silverstone, 62. He had up to now confronted 10 child pornography fees in state court after deputies arrested him in July.
According to a federal court database, prosecutors filed a case in opposition to Silverstone in the Southern District of Florida on Thursday, despite the fact that a list of fees, court dates and charging paperwork weren’t straight away to be had.
Broward prosecutors dropped Silverstone’s state fees the similar day because the case modified jurisdictions.
An arrest warrant filed in Broward County court on July 12, previous to Silverstone’s preliminary arrest, alleged that the ex-official have been sharing child sexual abuse material on peer-to-peer sharing website online BitTorrent.
A Broward Sheriff’s Office detective wrote on the time that government discovered 93,921 pictures and movies on Silverstone’s pc, “only a small portion” of which they had been in a position to check.
Deputies mentioned of that small portion, they known greater than 1,500 information of child sexual abuse material and supplied graphic descriptions of child rape and abuse depicted in 10 of the information.
Those information had been without delay downloaded from an IP deal with attached to Silverstone’s house on Miramar Avenue.
The warrant described Silverstone, who served because the seashore the town’s fireplace leader from 2005 to 2007 and a commissioner from 2006 to 2010, as an individual regarded as to be a “trusted” and “respected” member of the group.
The detective used to be “especially concern(ed)” about Silverstone’s position as Lauderdale-by-the-Sea’s longtime the town Santa Claus, which he mentioned Silverstone introduced up all over a police interview, for the reason that the volunteer place concerned interactions with kids.
Authorities alleged that all over that interview, Silverstone admitted to the use of BitTorrent to obtain “movies of all sorts.”
“Silverstone stated he searches for everything the internet has to offer as he is curious about everything/anything and downloads anything/everything for learning purposes,” the warrant states.
Deputies mentioned Silverstone admitted to figuring out the that means of an acronym used in the outline of child sexual abuse material and the use of that time period in searches, however claimed he wasn’t knowingly on the lookout for the material, in spite of the record names “clearly indicating” differently.
The warrant states that Silverstone claimed to not know the variation between what’s actual and pretend and to not know the variation between a tender child, an adolescent or an grownup.
After appearing him stills of one of the crucial information, the detective wrote that Silverstone made statements in “disgust” and mentioned the photographs “appear to contain very young children,” which the detective mentioned “contradicts his statement about not being able to tell the difference between children and adults.”
During the just about one-hour lengthy interview, Silverstone persisted to insist that he didn’t know the variation between actual and pretend, the detective wrote.
Local 10 News has contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida looking for information in regards to the new federal fees Silverstone will face.
Copyright 2023 by way of – All rights reserved.