Youth minister threatens to rape NYC Council Speaker and kill gay cops
Emails from 26-year-old Daniel Silvera's Gmail account threatened violence against various authority figures
A Bronx youth minister is being charged with harassment after he threatened to rape City Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito, murder her family, and kill all of New York City’s gay and lesbian police officers.
Daniel Silvera, 26, allegedly made the threats on July 28, in emails he sent to Mark-Viverito, Detective Brian Downey, the president of the New York Police Department’s Gay Officers Action League, and three officers from the NYPD’s LGBT Outreach Unit, reports DNAInfo.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Silvera sent an email from his Gmail account to Mark-Viverito, telling her he would go to her home, knock down her door and rape her four times. He also said he would rape her at her City Council office and kill her family with weapons.
In the emails to Downey and the other LGBT Outreach Unit officers, including lesbian Sgt. Michelle Martindale, Silvera threatened to kill every gay and lesbian police officer on the NYPD with weapons.
Silvera was questioned by Downey at the 69th Precinct station house in Canarsie, prosecutors said. While under questioning, he admitted to sending the emails.
“These violent, dangerous threats against the Speaker and the NYPD are deeply disturbing and we thank the DA’s office for pursuing this matter,” Robin Levine, a spokeswoman for Mark-Viverito, said in a statement.
Silvera was arraigned Tuesday in Manhattan criminal court on 16 counts of aggravated harassment as a hate crime. He is being held in prison on $50,000 bail.
Lawyers for Silvera with the Legal Aid Society have declined to comment on the case.
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