Ex- mayor pleads guilty in meth- for- sex sting
Former D. C. suburb official held for sentencing
A former Virginia mayor pleaded guilty Monday to a felony drug distribution charge after local police arrested him in August for selling methamphetamine to undercover officers in exchange for group sex.
Former Fairfax mayor Richard “Scott” Silverthorne, 51, is to remain in custody until a June 9 sentencing hearing where he faces a maximum 40 years in prison and a $ 500,000 fine.
Silverthorne’s attorney, Brian Drummond, said he was shocked the court ruled to hold the former politician until June given that Silverthorne has no prior record of drug charges and that he was released after his arrest before the plea hearing.
Throughout the hearing, Silverthorne remained calm, answering the judge’s questions with brief responses.
Family, friends and co- workers were visibly shaken in the courtroom, one saying “Oh my, God,” after the judge issued the ruling.
“He’s not some cartel guy,” Mary Silverthorne, the former mayor’s sister- inlaw, said, fighting back tears. “He’s not what people might think of.”
Silverthorne said she does not think her brother- in- law would have faced imprisonment until sentencing had he not been a public figure.
Police arrested the then- mayor on Aug. 4 in a sting at a Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Detectives first encountered Silverthorne on a website used for casual sexual encounters between men, prosecutors said Monday. After a few online exchanges in July, Silverthorne told detectives to text him and set up a meeting to supply drugs in exchange for “a gang bang,” prosecutors said.
The detectives met Silverthorne in the hotel parking lot where they gave him $ 200 for methamphetamine.
Silverthorne used $ 60 to pay a debt and purchased $ 140 worth of crystal meth from a supplier inside the hotel, prosecutors said. Police arrested Silverthorne when he returned to the parking lot.
Police also arrested two other men — Juan Jose Fernandez, 34, and Caustin Lee McLaughlin, 31 — on felony drug charges in the undercover operation.
Drummond said Silverthorne had no intention to profit off the encounter other than to use the drug.
No sentencing arrangement was reached in the plea agreement but a misdemeanor drug- related charge was dropped.
With Virginia’s voluntary sentencing guidelines, the judge could give Silverthorne seven months to a year and four months in prison, and the recommendation based on Silverthorne’s history and circumstances of the case could lead to only probation, Drummond said.