FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The case of a former Lauderdale-by-the-Sea town commissioner, fire chief and “volunteer Santa Claus” accused of possessing child sexual abuse material is now in the hands of federal prosecutors, Local 10 News has learned.
Officials with the Broward State Attorney’s Office confirmed that federal authorities are now handling the case against James Silverstone, 62. He had previously faced 10 child pornography charges in state court after deputies arrested him in July.
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According to a federal court database, prosecutors filed a case against Silverstone in the Southern District of Florida on Thursday, though a listing of charges, court dates and charging documents were not immediately available.
Broward prosecutors dropped Silverstone’s state charges the same day as the case changed jurisdictions.
An arrest warrant filed in Broward County court on July 12, prior to Silverstone’s initial arrest, alleged that the ex-official had been sharing child sexual abuse material on peer-to-peer sharing site BitTorrent.
A Broward Sheriff’s Office detective wrote at the time that authorities found 93,921 images and videos on Silverstone’s computer, “only a small portion” of which they were able to review.
Deputies said of that small portion, they identified more than 1,500 files of child sexual abuse material and provided graphic descriptions of child rape and abuse depicted in 10 of the files.
Those files were directly downloaded from an IP address connected to Silverstone’s home on Miramar Avenue.
The warrant described Silverstone, who served as the seaside town’s fire chief from 2005 to 2007 and a commissioner from 2006 to 2010, as a person considered to be a “trusted” and “respected” member of the community.
The detective was “especially concern(ed)” about Silverstone’s role as Lauderdale-by-the-Sea’s longtime town Santa Claus, which he said Silverstone brought up during a police interview, given that the volunteer position involved interactions with children.
Authorities alleged that during that interview, Silverstone admitted to using BitTorrent to download “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 said Silverstone admitted to knowing the meaning of an acronym used in the description of child sexual abuse material and using that term in searches, but claimed he wasn’t knowingly searching for the material, despite the file names “clearly indicating” otherwise.
The warrant states that Silverstone claimed not to know the difference between what’s real and fake and not to know the difference between a young child, a teenager or an adult.
After showing him stills of some of the files, the detective wrote that Silverstone made statements in “disgust” and said the images “appear to contain very young children,” which the detective said “contradicts his statement about not being able to tell the difference between children and adults.”
During the nearly one-hour long interview, Silverstone continued to insist that he didn’t know the difference between real and fake, the detective wrote.
Local 10 News has contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida seeking information about the new federal charges Silverstone will face.