Former Bartow EMT, substitute teacher sentenced on child pornography charge
Polk County Police initiated initial investigation into Bryan David Somers that led to his conviction in March.
A former EMT and substitute teacher in Emerson was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison on child pornography charges.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee sentenced 43-year-old Bryan David Somers, of Cartersville, to the prison term as well as 25 years of supervised release on receipt and distribution of child pornography charges.
Somers was found guilty in March after a trial in U.S. District Court.
“By receiving and distributing these images, Somers participated in the continuing abuse and exploitation of children,” said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Ryan K. Buchanan. “The pictures and videos document the abuse of real children at the hands of depraved individuals. Distributing those images over the internet means the most horrifying thing in a child’s life is shared around the world, in perpetuity.”
Somers worked for MetroAtlanta Ambulance Service in Bartow County as well as serving as a substitute teacher in the Bartow school system but primarily served at Emerson Elementary School.
The investigation began in June 2019 when a Polk County Police Department Officer who is a member of the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children task force discovered a computer in Cartersville was sharing child pornography over the internet. They sent that lead to the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office and Homeland Security investigators.
During their investigation, agents learned that the IP address sharing child pornography was assigned to Somers.
In July 2019, HSI agents as well as agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Bartow County Sheriff’s Office, and Polk County Police Department, executed a federal search warrant at the man’s residence.
In that raid police seized computers that resulted in the recovery of a file that contained child pornography. It also showed that Somers has attempted to remove the images from his devices and had downloaded hundreds of files with titles indicating they contained child pornography.