- Slade Sohmer, 44, was arrested on Friday after being charged with possessing and distributing hundreds of child abuse material
- He was released on Monday on $100,000 bail after pleading not guilty
- The journalist faces a mandatory sentence of 15 years if convicted of all charges
The former editor-in-chief of the left-leaning 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 material, including images depicting the rape of a child who was around four years old.
The Otis, Massachusetts, resident was arrested on Friday at his home after police obtained a search warrant for his devices.
He was released on Monday on $100,000 bail after pleading not guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of dissemination of child pornography.
The journalist was ordered to have no access to internet, engage in location notifications with a parole officer and avoid contact with minors.
Slade Sohmer, 44, is accused of possessing and distributing hundreds of child abuse material
Sohmer was also allegedly filmed instructing a minor to perform sex acts
Investigators said in court documents they found footage showing boys as young as four being raped and forced to perform oral sex acts by adults.
The probe reportedly started after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reportedly informed 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 the footage showed an 11-year-old boy masturbating.
Sohmer was also allegedly filmed instructing a minor to perform sex acts.
He previously worked as a camp counselor for a nonprofit in New York, per his LinkedIn, which says he has worked as a co-director at Camp Power since 2010.
Sohmer was the head editor at The Recount for four years, until last month. He was removed from his position after the probe began, as reported by Fox News.
He also had stints at Mic and SiriusXM radio and co-founded Hyper Vocal news site.
Assistant District Attorney Marianne Shelvey said the case is one of the ‘most egregious’ she has seen, as repoted 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 went from just dissemination of child pornography to production of child pornography,’ Shelvey said in court.
Fox News noted that Buzzfeed has removed a 2018 article about Sohmer titled ‘People Are Touched By This Writer’s Conversation With A Bunch Of Fourth Graders.’
The article saw Sohmer highlighting questions asked by children in a classroom taught by his mother.
Sohmer is scheduled back in curt on December 21.
He faces a mandatory sentence of 15 years if convicted 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 company restructure exercise in early October to focus on our editorial and commercial plans.’
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