Former editor of left-wing website The Recount, Slade Sohmer, is facing multiple charges of child pornography
- Slade Sohmer, 44, was arrested Friday after being accused of possessing and distributing hundreds of child abuse materials
- He was released Monday on $100,000 bail after pleading not guilty
- The journalist faces a mandatory sentence of 15 years if found guilty of all charges
The former editor-in-chief of the left-wing news website The Recount has been charged with multiple counts of child pornography.
Slade Sohmer, 44, is accused of possessing and distributing hundreds of child abuse materials, including images depicting the rape of a child approximately four years old.
The Otis, Massachusetts, resident was arrested at his home on Friday after police obtained a search warrant for his devices.
He was released Monday on $100,000 bail after pleading not guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of distribution of child pornography.
The journalist was ordered not to have access to the internet, to report his location to a probation officer and to avoid contact with minors.
Slade Sohmer, 44, is accused of possessing and distributing hundreds of pieces of child pornography
Sohmer was also allegedly filmed instructing a minor to perform sexual acts
Investigators say they have found images in court documents showing boys as young as four being raped by adults and forced to perform oral sex acts.
The investigation reportedly began after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reportedly notified the Massachusetts State Policy Cyber Crime Unit that someone had shared a suspicious video on Snapchat in September 2022.
Police say they then traced the IP address to Sohmer’s home.
The Berkshire Eagle reported that the footage showed an 11-year-old boy masturbating.
Sohmer was also allegedly filmed instructing a minor to perform sexual acts.
He previously worked as a camp counselor for a nonprofit in New York, according to his LinkedIn, which lists him as co-director at Camp Power since 2010.
Sohmer was editor-in-chief at The Recount for four years, until last month. He was removed from his position after the investigation began, Fox News reported.
He also had stints at Mic and SiriusXM radio and co-founded the Hyper Vocal news site.
Assistant District Attorney Marianne Shelvey said the case is one of the “most egregious” she has ever seen, as reported by The New York Post.
Buzzfeed appears to have removed a 2018 article about Sohmer titled “People are touched by this writer’s conversation with a bunch of fourth graders”
“We’ve gone from merely distributing child pornography to producing child pornography,” Shelvey said in court.
Fox News noted that Buzzfeed removed a 2018 article about Sohmer titled “People are touched by this writer’s conversation with a bunch of fourth-graders.”
In the article, Sohmer highlighted questions asked by children in a classroom where his mother taught.
Sohmer is briefly scheduled again on December 21.
He faces a mandatory sentence of 15 years if found guilty of all charges.
The Recount’s parent company, The News Movement, told The Post in a statement that Sohmer “is no longer editor-in-chief following a corporate restructuring in early October to focus on our editorial and commercial plans.”