WTF

Comic Con Promoter Hires Convicted Child Sex Offender To Photograph Kids At Hanover Mall Event, Calls Customers “Ungrateful” Witch Burners When They Don’t Like This

Comic Con Promoter Hires Convicted Child Sex Offender To Photograph Kids At Hanover Mall Event, Calls Customers “Ungrateful” Witch Burners When They Don’t Like This

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This is convicted sex offender and former Virginia “assistant” pastor Daniel Silverman:

In 2009 he plead no contest to an allegation of sexual assault on a 12 year old girl, and claimed he was not going to bring it to trial because he was such a great that he simply could not force the 12 year old victim to take the stand in court. Instead he’d take one for the team, go to prison, and forever be known as a sex offender. I swear to God that’s his story:

A former assistant pastor of a Vinton church was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison for sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl. Daniel Silverman, who had earlier pleaded no contest, maintained his innocence to the end — saying he would just as soon be branded a sex offender and go to prison than subject the girl to the emotional trauma of having to testify against him and face cross-examination.

“I would rather plead no contest than put her through that,” Silverman told Roanoke County Circuit Court Judge James Swanson. 

But the problem is that he readily admitted to many people that he did it: 

Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Leach disputed the innocence claim, noting that Silverman confessed to a police officer and a social services worker after the offense last summer. Silverman, 43, was the assistant pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in Vinton at the time.

Then he claimed shortly afterwards that the girl was lying:

After first admitting the abuse, Silverman has said the girl fabricated the allegations against him out of anger.

A shrink determined that was a lie:

A psychological evaluation found he is in denial.

Even the Judge was like…..da fuq?

Midway through Silverman’s sentencing hearing, Swanson began to voice concerns about his repeated claims of innocence.

“It is not the business of this court to convict innocent people,” Swanson said. “And if there is an issue to your innocence, I’m very uncomfortable with this process.”

The judge recessed court to allow Silverman to discuss his plea of no contest with his attorney, Luke Jennings. After the break, Silverman said he wanted to go through with his plea. With Silverman choosing not to dispute the charge, his guilt was established, Swanson said. The judge sentenced Silverman to seven years in prison, suspended after he serves 18 months, and ordered him to register with the state as a sex offender and spend five years on probation after his release.

And his scumbag lawyer gave possibly one of the worst excuses ever uttered in a courtroom for his client’s actions: 

Jennings had asked for leniency, arguing that his client’s acts were not as egregious as those usually associated with a charge of aggravated sexual battery. “We’re talking about one touch to the breast that lasted for just a moment … with no pattern of abuse,” Jennings said.

Oh yea, it’s just a little tittie grabbing of a 12 year old. Come on, it’s not like he they went all the way. Is it even against the law to go to second base with a 12 year old who isn’t capable of consenting?

Yea, that really happened.

Anyway, Daniel Silverman has been out of prison for a while now, and has opened his own business called “Sci-Fi Photo Guys”:

They get hired by Cosplay conventions to take pictures of kids and grown adults who still dress up as children’s characters. Ya got that? A registered sex offender opened up a business where he gets paid to be around children and take their pictures. He could’ve gone into any business he wanted to when he got out of jail. He chose this one. But it’s OK because it was just a little tittie grab. No biggie, right?

We’d link his Facebook page and website but they currently are not up. Here’s why:

Yup, he’s coming Hanover, MA to take pictures of kids in the Hanover Mall. What could possibly go wrong?

Not a risk to reoffend? Newsflash – anyone who’s ever diddled a kid is a risk to reoffend. That’s like saying a junkbox in recovery isn’t likely to relapse. Normal people don’t diddle kids. It’s inexplainable, and I truly believe it’s a mental disorder. But to say you can just snap out of it and suddenly decide that it’s not your thing anymore is utterly ridiculous.

Either way, as Mark pointed out, they should’ve at the very least made an announcement that a sex offender would be taking pictures and let consumers make their own decisions. But of course they wouldn’t do that because they know that no one would show up, and it’s really just all about the money.

The Boston Southcoast Comic Con & Collectibles Extravaganza appears that it is being put on by Hudson, MA resident Gary Sohmers, the CEO of Image Meet and Greet Events:

This is what we’re dealing with:

Oh yea, definitely NOT creepy.

Gary took to his personal Facebook page to announce “from the front lines” that he is being “attacked” by an “agitator” who has simply brought to people’s attention that a registered sex offender will be taking pictures of their children at a mall:

Darcy Dillon, who appears to be some sort of extra from the Capitol in The Hunger Games, seems to be upset that people are making the decision not to bring their children to this event based on the fact that they were not informed by the convention that a sex offender would be taking pics of their kids. Because the real victim here is the sex offender and the convention that hired him.

For sure.

But wait, it gets better. Whoever runs the Comic Con’s Facebook page used their extensive training in media relations to post one of the most ill advised posts in the history of modern business:

Oh for fuck’s sake.

Don’t worry parents, it’s not a big deal because the guy running the Comic Con page says that the registered sex offender is a “good person and I know it.” Lots of good people sexually assault 12 year olds. He’s never diddled a kid at another Comic Con, so obviously you have nothing to worry about. Plus, he’s the victim here:

“No one appears to want to understand that bad things happen to some people in life, and sometimes an adult will take the bad so that someone else does not get the bad in life, sacrificing himself to save a child from the pain of a trumped up charge”

This can’t be real life. On what planet would ANY innocent person choose not to plead not guilty to a crime they didn’t commit, ESPECIALLY if it’s a sex crime against a child. That is like the number one crime you should deny if you didn’t really do it. There’s no coming back from that charge. It’s one thing when a sex offender, who a shrink determined was “in denial,” comes up with a crazy reason like this to not fight the charges. It’s a completely different thing when an organization like Southcoast Comic Con decides to believe this reasoning.

“I ask that you please do not fall for the propaganda rhetoric of a single agitator stirring up social media and never ask the questions “why does this Doctor Who cosplayer, Mark Brunco, feel it is his mission to destroy David Silverman’s life by slandering him and our show” … Was Mr. Brunco involved ?… No ? … does Mr. Brunco have info the police or courts don’t have ? … I don’t think so ? … Mr. Brunco appears to have some kind of personal vendetta against Mr. Silverman or my show … but if you are considering attending, please be assured that the State of Virginia, The Police and my organization have complete faith that you have nothing to fear from Mr. Silverman … if you still choose to fear based on one man’s attack on another man, then let he who is without sin throw stones.”

Wait…..what?? The dude is quoting the Bible to defend a sex offender now. From the company’s business page!! They’re calling the whistle blower an “agitator,” who obviously has a “personal agenda” and is spreading “propaganda” because he’s concerned that a registered sex offender will be photographing children.

Does the whistle blower have any information the cops and courts do not? You mean, besides the fact that he chose not to plead not guilty to sexually assaulting a child? Nope. That’s about it. Flimsy evidence at best apparently!!

This Facebook post went over like a job fair in Brockton:

 

You’d think after backlash like this from potential customers that they would delete and retreat. Instead they double, triple, and quadrupled down, and started going at it with anyone who had anything negative to say about this upstanding individual being around their kids:

Oh yea, comparing your customers to to 1620 Salem villagers burning innocent women to death is definitely a smart move. They teach that in business school on day 1.

After more and more people expressed their problem with this, the Comic Con folks decided to bust out the caps lock to let people know just how stupid they were:

Why are we judging him if the court already has? Ummm….we’re basing our judgement off of the judgement of that court. That and the fact that the sex offender never once denied his crimes in a court of law when he had the chance to.

Calling your customers “bullies” for taking up issue with the fact that you attempted to hide from the public this information about one of your contracted employees is definitely going to smooth things over. Definitely.

Yea guys, you didn’t read “all of the police and court documents,” so you’re basing your opinion of this sex offender off the fact that the didn’t deny that he was a sex offender when he had the chance and he willingly went to prison because he didn’t fight the allegation that he was a child tittie grabber. Only Gary Sohmers knows the real story. Hey Gary, perhaps you’d like to share these “documents” that prove that the man is in fact innocent. You got em or nah?

Here’s the best part – he called anyone who was upset that the Comic Con attempted to hide these facts or got cold feet over the fact that their children would be around a sex offender, are “not worthy” of coming to his event:

Ya got that? All you parents of small children who would rather this company just choose a photographer who WAS NOT a registered sex offender, which there are no shortage of out there, are ungrateful and not worthy of attending future Comic Cons.

Perfectly normal.

Gary just couldn’t help himself though, and he just kept making it worse, and worse, and worse……

       

Victim blaming!! Even better!!

He wasn’t the only one standing up for the sex offender though. For some reason this idiot Ryan Caswell decided to challenge the whistle blower, claiming that the sex offender was not actually a sex offender:

Bro, do you even Google? It’s the first thing that comes up:

Sex offender. Renewed registration in June. There is no doubt. This is an open and shut case. But by all means, keep defending him. This is the kind of guy you wanna go all “free my boi” for.

Mark Brunco then produced the email correspondence with Gary Sohmers, proving that he had made him aware of the sexual assault conviction (not allegation) of one of his contracted employees, and Gary was still choosing to NOT let the public know about it:

Who would’ve ever thought that this guy right here:

Would see nothing wrong with hiring a guy who sexually assaulted a 12 year old girl to work at many of his conventions for the sole purpose of taking pictures of small children? That guy seems perfectly normal himself.

I’d say that Gary Sohmers must not have any children to allow something like this, but you don’t need to have kids to understand how fucked up and insane this is. There’s probably a million photographers he could hire, including local ones. But he INSISTS on bringing in his sex offender buddy from Virginia. Smart move.

Anyway, this is the kind of story that a billion people would’ve sent us on Facebook if they hadn’t taken down our page with 112,000 followers for absolutely no reason. Instead only one person who follows the Turtleboy Fallout Shelter sent it to us. This is the kind of story that the public needs to know about, and we’re the only media outlet willing to let people know. This is what we do – we expose people like this so that parents can feel safe. But according to online mobs and Facebook, this is “bullying,” and cannot be allowed. This is why what Facebook is doing is dangerous. Facebook is no better than Gary Sohmers. They are actively trying to prevent us from getting information like this out there to people. But we will never, ever, ever let them win. Ever.

 

21 Comment(s)
  • True Reality Speaks
    Tired of Don't Snitch Pussies
    December 7, 2017 at 7:47 am

    Anyone that thinks you are dealing with normal, non-deviant type adults that attend and/or participate in this child-level maturity dress up party shit needs their head examined. Would be surprised if NAMBLA or some other perv organization ISN’T behind these freak shows.

  • LTT
    Never going to that comiccon again!
    December 7, 2017 at 7:09 am

    The lack of PR on that FB page has “Meow, Meow, Purr, Purr” written all over it! As a parent of a teen who is a comiccon enthusiast, we will NEVER attend one held by this lunatic! Thank you for the heads up, Turtleboy!

  • Urban Teacher
    December 6, 2017 at 9:12 pm

    Reposted your warning to my FB Page!

  • SVU
    December 6, 2017 at 3:45 pm

    Pediphile‘s usually stick together and by the looks of this long haired crazy looking dude, I wouldn’t want him or his photographer friend anywhere near my children. Hopefully this story will keep some children safe. Great job!

  • Gina
    December 6, 2017 at 3:23 pm

    I read his “deconversion” piece. While I don’t doubt that a religious zealot of a wife, after spending her whole marriage the wife of a pastor and receiving all the prestige and whatever goes along with it..might go crazy when she hears he suddenly doesn’t believe in Jesus and is quitting the job that he admits is only barely providing for the family..with no prospects to start a new career and keep them from being homeless..I can see her making up fake sexual assault charges as retribution..what I CANT believe…even for a MINUTE..is that ANYONE would plead GUILTY TO TOUCHING A LITTLE GIRL WHEN YOU DIDNT DO IT! NOONE wants to have that attached to them its the worst thing you can be ..they hate pedophiles in jail more than any other criminal… He absolutely did this and whether he will re-offend or not is up to the parents to decide if you want your kid around him.

  • Finn
    December 6, 2017 at 3:01 pm

    What innocent person pleads “no contest” if they’re innocent? A crazy person? No. A guilty person. There is NO way in high hell I would plead no contest if I were innocent. I would drag my accusers into court and clear my name. Scumbags.

    Side note – I’ve never understood why adult men want jobs around kids. Kids (unless they’re your own) are horrible creatures.

  • Mayor Lynch
    December 6, 2017 at 1:56 pm

    Sounds like a good guy to me. I personally wouldn’t touch a booby, ew, gross. But how can you condemn him for a little pinch and giggle? He might even have a few interesting photos to swap with the right, um, collector. I like to cosplay. I’ve gone to several cons in my vintage Howard Stern “Fartman” costume. I also have incorporated it into my role playing with David. Whenever I’m not shoveling, I like to put on my Fartman costume and David and I snowball each other.

  • The Rant Queen
    December 6, 2017 at 1:10 pm

    Dude is probably getting his micro-penis diddled by the creepy, obviously mentally retarded, child molestor. Who else would risk their entire business defending an actual convicted child molestor? Hell, he’s probably taking the pics with the promise that he can keep whatever copies of pics he wants, that have children in them., instead of paying him cash.

  • Annie
    December 6, 2017 at 1:09 pm

    I have to say that your journalism has improved one thousandfold. Your syntax and grammar are greatly improved, and you are reporting on important issues, and not simply hit pieces posted for shock value. Well-done keep up in this vein and you will be a well-respected, highly-sought news source across political and social spectra.

    • The Rant Queen/Miss Zombie
      December 6, 2017 at 1:34 pm

      Hey, many of us enjoy those “Shock pieces” you speak of. It’s good knowing who to keep away from when it comes junkies, foodstamp sellers, scammers (GFM, etc.) and overall dangerous and conscienceless people, who hurt, or worse, hard working, innocent people. And sometimes, it’s nice to relax and read about the latest ratchets fighting over crack or some Bulls hat wearing tool, who looks like he couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag.

      TBS isn’t JUST about the serious news, like exposing corruption in politics, welfare fraud and businesses risking their customers’ safety, it’s about entertainment news as well. Except not in the way E! or People is entertainment. I don’t give a shit about celebrity shenanigans. They have reality shows for that richy crap. I want to see ratchet entertainment; Ppl who are nowhere near rich or famous, and are way more fun to watch and learn about. I think a news blog with more than one angle is the best kind of news blog. Add to that, their wit and creativity, thorough fact checking and investigative skills and they’re just better than the rest by FAR. Besides, they’re un-biased and it’s SO NICE to not feel like I’m about to be fucking attacked for my opinions, or feel like I’m alone with them, because these other news sources are so far left, anyone who doesn’t feel guilty or don’t agree with their shit, is considered a racist or bigot. No thanks. I don’t feel like TBS is trying to brainwash me, and that, my friend, is the best part of all.

      • Becky Blueline
        December 6, 2017 at 1:59 pm

        The fact-checking is the biggest selling point for me. The “shock pieces” (GoFundMe Scam Rachets, EBT resellers, over-the-top-for-self-gain SJWs, porch thieves, etc.) are compelling to me, too. I wholly recognize that these people are a product of a perpetual cycle within a broken societal system, but that doesn’t change the fact that these “low tier” criminals/ fraudsters do bring harm to people around them. This is why I like seeing exposure of things like the judicial and State Police corruption mixed in. It’s all a reminder of an endless, connected circle.

        TBS DOES report the corrupt and exploitive “cogs” in the broken system, alongside the little ratchets that the cogs are fueling themselves on. I like seeing both all in one place WITH the facts. Agree or disagree with the subjects they cover, but the referenceable facts that are always presented in each story don’t lie. This is what TBS delivers.

    • Suck It, Annie
      December 23, 2017 at 6:43 am

      “Your syntax and grammar are greatly improved” ah so it is “Annie” who is the syntax and grammar Nazi. fuck off and die, Annie. it’s the fucking internet, not your grannie’s library.

  • juror seven esq.
    December 6, 2017 at 1:02 pm

    Gary Sohmers, he ran or may still run a business, Wex-Rex Collectibles. He was one strange individual when I saw him around Hudson MA. Google him and read about some of his disputes with Antique Road Show.

    • Buddy
      October 26, 2018 at 10:17 pm

      Gary’s got a pretty good record himself with trying to get a woman falsely arrested in Lancaster. Lancasters PD were none too pleased with this. The Framingham and Marlboro courts know this vendetta well. Makes for fascinating reading.

  • TJB
    TJustice
    December 6, 2017 at 12:59 pm

    If I had kids I would definitely want to know this. Good job, TB. As far as bullying goes, I think WE are the ones being bullied by FB. In their eyes; showing pictures of a miscarried baby is OK, but spreading the truth regarding junkies and sex offenders in your area is ‘bullying’. Keep up the good work, TB.

  • Universal Life Church
    December 6, 2017 at 12:43 pm

    Another fake pastor, one is in Worcester too. She is questionable & funky like he is.

  • Peekachew
    December 6, 2017 at 12:29 pm

    I’m stunned. there is a touch of solace knowing his 18 months in jail was a total pain in the ass .

  • Becky Blueline
    December 6, 2017 at 12:21 pm

    This is the Turtleboy I love. And by the way, I am in PR and there is NO WAY I’d touch that dumpster fire. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.

    Thank you for “blowing this up.” Often social media discussions either go away or become buried over time, but when they’re on TBS they typically show up on page one of a search. This is one company reputation blemish that should NEVER be allowed to fade away.

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