James Jude Silverstone volunteers to be Santa Claus. Deputies said, however, that he possessed many images and video of child sexual abuse material. (Mugshot: Broward County Sheriff’s Office)
A defendant who allegedly possessed more than 1,500 child porn images has a hell of a backstory, and it’s one that investigators find troubling. Not only was James Jude Silverstone, 62, the former commissioner and fire chief of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, Florida, but he has also worked as the volunteer Santa Claus, according to deputies in Broward County.
The detective who wrote the probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime voiced concern because of the files and Silverstone’s access to children, “as he is entrusted by parents who bring their children to sit with and/or on top of Santa Claus during the Holiday Season.”
This defendant faces 10 counts of transmission of child pornography by electronic device.
Detectives in April began investigating a computer user who downloaded child pornography, investigators said. They claimed to have discovered more than 217 files of images and videos showing child sexual abuse material at the time. There were also 39 other images and videos that involved “the sexually explicit depiction of children” but fell short of the statutory definition of child porn, they said.
Investigators identified Silverstone as the suspect.
“Through investigatory workups in regards to the investigation your affiant learned that Silverstone is believed to be a respected member of the Lauderdale-By-The-Sea Community and trusted by City Officials and/or residents of the community as he was once a City Commissioner himself, between 2006-2010 and was also the City Fire Chief from 2005-2007,” authorities wrote.
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Investigators executed a search warrant on his home in May.
A section of the affidavit begins “Post Miranda,” but authorities redacted a block of text after it.
They eventually did note, however, that Silverstone said he served as the city Santa Claus for holiday season events “and has been doing it for numerous years.” During the search, investigators found pictures of him dressed as Santa Claus.
Investigators claimed to dig up quite a bit of deleted data from a particular hard drive.
“Upon reviewing the carved data, a total of 93,921 additional video and/or image files were located,” authorities wrote. “These files are only partial video and/or image clips from video files as they were deleted from the hard drive. As of July 12, 2023, your affiant has reviewed only a small portion of the 93,921 files from which over 1,500 of the files have been identified and/or classified as child pornography as defined by F.S.S. 827.071.”
The material depicts both boys and girls ranging from infants to young teenagers, deputies said. Adult men and women sexually abused them, authorities said. Investigators previously reviewed some of the data in their initial investigation.
Silverstone appeared in a Broward County courtroom on Friday where his bond was set at $10,000, WPLG reported. His attorney said he expected his client to bond out later that day.
The arrest affidavit can be found here. Warning: the document contains several graphic video descriptions.
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