The former editor-in-chief of the left-leaning news website The Recount is facing child pornography charges.
Slade Sohmer, 44, was charged in Massachusetts with possessing and disseminating “hundreds of child pornography images and videos,” The Berkshire Eagle reported.
Sohmer was editor-in-chief of The Recount until just last month. He was dismissed from the role around the same time the Berkshire District Attorney began investigating the child pornography allegations. He “is no longer editor-in-chief” of the site “following a company restructure exercise in early October to focus on our editorial and commercial plans,” a spokesperson for The Recount’s parent company The News Movement, told the New York Post.
Sohmer was arrested on Friday at his home in Otis, about 30 miles west of Springfield, and he was released Monday on $100,000 bail.
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of dissemination of child pornography. The possession charge carries a minimum sentence of five years in state prison, and the dissemination charge carries a 10-year minimum sentence.
Sohmer’s arrest comes after law enforcement obtained a search warrant and confiscated his electronic devices several weeks ago. The child pornography case is one of the most “egregious” Assistant District Attorney Marianne Shelvey said she has encountered.
Sohmer’s phone allegedly stored pornographic videos showing boys believed to be as young as three, according to court documents cited by The Berkshire Eagle. More than 1,300 images of child pornography were allegedly found.
Authorities also discovered texts allegedly sent by Sohmer discussing how to kidnap and rape a child, a detail Shelvey said adds “a level of extreme cruelty.”
Authorities received a tip about Sohmer involving someone sending a suspicious video on Snapchat in late September of last year. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reportedly alerted the Massachusetts State Police Cyber Crime Unit about the disturbing video.
The video allegedly showed a boy around 11 years old, according to court documents cited by The Berkshire Eagle, and authorities traced the video to an IP address allegedly connected to Sohmer’s home internet account.
Previously, Sohmer also worked as a camp counselor for Camp Power, a nonprofit that “provides kids from New York City’s most underfunded and underserved neighborhoods with freedom and encouragement that are often lacking in their communities back in the city,” his LinkedIn profile shows.
He has also worked for SiriusXM Radio, Mic, and several other places, according to his LinkedIn.
Sohmer is scheduled to appear in court on December 21.