Former Dem Mayor Pleads Guilty In Meth/Sex Sting

The Washington Post reports:

After three decades of public life, Richard “Scott” Silverthorne was known simply as the mayor around Fairfax City. But online, a prosecutor said Monday, he used a sexually suggestive screen name that would lead to his stunning downfall.

Using the online moniker, Silverthorne, 50, arranged an orgy with an undercover police officer in exchange for methamphetamine on a sex site called Bare Back Real Time, the prosecutor said. Police had received a tip about Silverthorne’s activity and set up a fake account to lure him last summer.

The sting ended Silverthorne’s political career, drew national attention and, on Monday, landed him in jail, after he pleaded guilty in Fairfax County Circuit Court to one count of distributing drugs.

In a surprise move that shocked a group of supporters who had gathered in the courtroom, Circuit Judge Grace Burke Carroll remanded Silverthorne to custody until his sentencing on the charge June 9. Silverthorne had remained free on his own recognizance since his August arrest.

Silverthorne faces up to 40 years in prison when he is sentenced, but because he is a first-time offender and has a long record of public service, his sentence could be months to just over a year, his attorney Brian Drummond said.

It doesn’t appear that Silverthorne was out at the time of his arrest. In April 2015 he was one of more than 200 mayors that joined a SCOTUS brief in support of same-sex marriage. In December 2015 he publicly revealed that he was being treated for skin cancer.