Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Bronx Youth Minister Threatens to Rape and Kill Council Speaker, DA Says

By Janon Fisher | August 16, 2017 10:53am
 Youth minister Daniel Silvera, 26, (right), who threatened to rape and kill City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and made threats to two LGBT police officers, standing with NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill.
Youth minister Daniel Silvera, 26, (right), who threatened to rape and kill City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and made threats to two LGBT police officers, standing with NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill.
View Full Caption
Facebook

MANHATTAN — A Bronx youth minister threatened to rape and kill City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and her family in addition to threatening harm on LGBT police officers in Manhattan and Brooklyn, prosecutors said.

Daniel Silvera, 26 — whose Facebook page shows him in a blurry photo posing with NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill — sent several emails from his Gmail account to the Council speaker, the president of an NYPD gay officers group and a community affairs officer for an LGBT Outreach Unit in Brooklyn, according to a criminal complaint.

In an email sent at 4 p.m. on July 28, Silvera said he would go to Viverito's home, knock down that door and rape her four times, prosecutors said. He also said he would rape her at the City Council building and kill her family with weapons, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

On the same day, Silvera also sent an email to the Gay Officers Action League and its president, Det. Brian Downey, saying he would kill every gay and lesbian police officer with weapons, prosecutors said.

He also sent a similar email to NYPD Sergeant Michelle Martindale, who works for the NYPD's LGBT Outreach Unit in Canarsie and identifies as lesbian, according to the DA's office.

On Aug. 2, he was questioned by Downey at the 69th Precinct stationhouse in Canarsie, where admitted to sending the emails, prosecutors said.

"These violent, dangerous threats against the Speaker and the NYPD are deeply disturbing and we thank the DA’s office for pursuing this matter," said Robin Levine, a spokeswoman for Mark-Viverito's office.

Silvera's Facebook page shows him to be very active in The Bronx and Nyack, N.Y., Christian communities. There are several photos of him posing with politicians, including O'Neill and Public Advocate Letitia James.

He was arraigned on 17 counts of aggravated harassment Tuesday and held on $50,000 bail.

His mother, when reached at her Bronx home, declined to comment.