Former Cub Scout leader gets prison time for child sex abuse material
ATLANTA - A former youth sports coach and Cub Scout leader from Cobb County will spend more than half a decade in federal prison after admitting to trading child sexual abuse material online.
What we know:
U.S. District Judge Michael L. Brown sentenced 73-year-old Ernest Vera of Powder Springs on Monday to serve six years in federal prison without the possibility of parole.
The prison term will be followed by 10 years of supervised release.
The sentencing follows a court appearance on Jan. 7 where Vera entered a guilty plea to charges of distributing child sexual abuse material through the messaging application Kik.
Dig deeper:
The investigation dates back to September 2021 when FBI agents executed a federal search warrant at Vera's home.
Federal authorities launched the raid after tracking social media traffic showing that Vera was actively sending and receiving explicit depictions of minors. Agents searched his mobile phone and digital devices, uncovering a collection of about 90 images and a dozen videos of child sexual abuse, according to federal prosecutors.
During an interview with investigators at his home, Vera admitted he used Kik to trade explicit media involving children as young as 13 years old.
Prosecutors said Vera also confessed to using the app to encourage users he believed were teenage girls living in India, Thailand, and South Africa to send sexual images of themselves, which they did.
The FBI investigated this case. Assistant United States Attorney Eric Boylan prosecuted the case.
What we don't know:
Federal authorities have not released the total number of victims identified during the investigation or their specific locations inside the United States. It remains unclear if any local children from Vera's former scouting packs or sports teams were impacted by his online activities.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from official public statements released by federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office, who detailed court records and investigative findings from the FBI.