Former Editor-in-Chief of Lefty News Site The Recount Arrested for Distributing Child Sex-Abuse Porn

The former editor-in-chief of the left-wing video news site, The Recount, has been charged with possessing and distributing child pornography, according to authorities in Western Massachusetts.

Slade Sohmer, 44, was arrested at his home in Otis, Mass. on Friday, weeks after police confiscated electronic devices from his home, the Boston Globe reported.

During the Oct. 17 search, the Berkshire Law Enforcement Task Force seized a phone from a nightstand that allegedly contained “hundreds of child phonography images and videos,” including one of a little boy being raped by an adult, according to a court affidavit.

Sohmer was charged in Massachusetts court with two counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of dissemination of child pornography.

He was released on $100,000 bail Monday after pleading not guilty to the charges. The alleged pedophile was ordered to have no contact with minors and prohibited from using the internet.

Assistant District Attorney Marianne Shelvey said the case was one of the most “egregious” of its kind that she has come across.

Court documents allege that “Sohmer’s phone contained disturbing video clips showing boys believed to be as young as three years of age being raped and forced to perform sex acts by adults.”

The investigation began after the messaging app Snapchat alerted the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s tip line in September 2022 that someone had used the app to send a video of a boy who appeared to be 11 or 12 performing a sexual act, according to a 26-page affidavit filed in court.

The center forwarded the tip to the Massachusetts State Police, triggering a subpoena by the Massachusetts attorney general’s office for more information about the IP address, ultimately leading to Sohmer, according to the affidavit.

During the search of Sohmer’s home last month, police seized various electronics and spoke to Sohmer, who gave them the passcode for his phone but then requested to speak to an attorney and ended the discussion, according to the affidavit by Hinsdale Police Sergeant Elizabeth Zipp.

Police also searched an account on the encrypted messaging app Telegram that they allege Sohmer was using to send child pornography, according to the affidavit.
Investigators found a “multitude” of chat threads on the app in which “the topic of discussion revolved around sexual exploits of young boys,” the affidavit says.

Sohmer allegedly used the app to send 53 videos that were flagged by investigators as potential child pornography, according to the affidavit.
Police allege that Sohmer talked about wanting to rape children while communicating with someone on the Telegram app in 2021, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit alleges that Sohmer told someone on Telegram that “a couple years back” he “baited” a 14-year-old boy by posing as a teenage girl. Sohmer allegedly said he told the boy to meet him on a street corner, and the boy showed up — but Sohmer said he “chickened out” and did not engage with him, the affidavit alleges.

Prosecutors also allege that one video shows Sohmer instructing a minor to perform sex acts. The child has reportedly been identified, and Sohmer will likely face additional charges stemming from that case.

“We went from just dissemination of child pornography to production of child pornography,” Shelvey told Judge Danielle Williams of Southern Berkshire District Court on Monday.

The Berkshire district attorney’s office said in a statement Tuesday that the investigation remains ongoing due to the “extremely large number of pornographic materials found on the devices.”

In a court filing setting bail, Judge Williams noted that Sohmer has ties to Pennsylvania, where he has worked for a “child’s camp.”

Sohmer’s LinkedIn page indicates that from 2010 to the present he has worked as a co-director at Camp Power, a nonprofit which “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 page also shows that he has worked at SiriusXM Radio, HyperVocal, Mic, and  Beme. He has reportedly worked at The Recount for the past four years.

In March of this year, he conducted a workshop for young reporters at The News Movement (TNM), “a social media news operation reimagined for Gen-Z consumers.” The News Movement acquired The Recount in January of 2023.

The News Movement said in a statement Tuesday that, Sohmer “is no longer Editor-In-Chief of The Recount following a company restructure exercise in early October to focus on our editorial and commercial plans.”

Sohmer faces minimum mandatory sentences of ten years in state prison if convicted of dissemination of child pornography and five years if convicted of possession of child pornography.