A Polk County judge set bond for the Massachusetts junior hockey coach accused of trying to solicit two 16-year-old Polk County boys online at $55,000 Saturday.
Anthony DeSilva, 41, is charged with 10 counts of use of computer to seduce a child and one count of transmission of harmful material to a child.
He arrested Wednesday night at his home in Acushnet, Mass and transferred to Polk County on Friday. His bond was set at $5,000 per charge.
As DeSilva was was being escorted into the building in handcuffs, Bay News 9 asked him what, if anything, he had to say about the charges. DeSilva hung his head low and did not say a word.
A mother of one of the teens who investigators say was approached by Desilva told Bay News 9 Friday night that, "I'm just happy that my son is safe." She asked that Bay News 9 not use her name.
She said she monitors her son’s Facebook account and knows his password. She said these days, parents need to keep an even closer eye on their children even if the kids don’t like it.
"I just want the teens to know that they have to be so careful," she said.
She also hopes that if there are other possible victims in Massachusetts that they would come forward and tell authorities.
"I hope that if something has been going down with the other kids on the hockey league, team, whatever, that they come forward," she said.
Meantime, Desilva’s mother is now speaking out.
"I just can't believe it,” said Gladys DeSilva. “I haven't slept in two days."
She lives at their Acushnet, Massachusetts home with her son. She said he has always gone out of his way to mentor kids.
"He's good with the kids," she said. "The kids all liked him."
Background information
According to the affidavit, the investigation began earlier this year when the mother of a 16-year-old Polk County boy contacted the Polk County Sheriff's Office in reference to a Massachusetts man named Tony she believed was soliciting her son online, through Facebook. Detectives asked for, and received, permission from the woman to pose as her son online to continue conversing with the suspect online.
During the online and text conversations, detectives said DeSilva sent naked images of himself to the “boy” and in graphic details described what he would like to do sexually to the “boy.”
During the same time frame, detectives said DeSilva also began soliciting another Polk County teenaged boy, whom the undercover detective also asked for, and received, permission to pose as online. The detective had conversations with DeSilva posing as two different 16-year-old Polk County boys, during which detectives said DeSilva solicited both young men online to perform sex acts and to send him nude photos of themselves.
According to the organization’s website, DeSilva is the Mass Maple Leafs Head Coach of the ESHL Junior team and General Manager.
Sheriff Grady Judd said even DeSilva admitted to the detectives posing as the two boys he acknowledged that what he was doing might get them in trouble with the law.
"We made it abundantly clear that we were juveniles," said Judd. "We made it abundantly clear that it was illegal. He even admitted he could get in trouble."
Judd described the conversations DeSilva had with the detectives. "And he told them in explicit graphic detail what he wanted to do with them and what he wanted to do to them," Judd said.
DeSilva even encouraged the boys to come to Massachusetts and in an ironic twist, Judd said, the detectives posing as the boys went there and when they knocked at his door, Judd said, he had no idea he'd hear these words.
"We asked him if he was familiar with Polk County, Florida and he said, no. We said, you will be. We're going to take you to jail and lock you up there," he said.