Ex-Teacher Sentenced in Molestation Case

Calling him a danger and a “nightmare,” a judge this week sentenced a former special education teacher with a two-decade-long history of molesting children to the maximum of 24 years behind bars.

Ross Ivan Sommers, 59, convicted by a Van Nuys jury of two felony counts of child molestation, must serve at least 21 years in state prison before he is eligible for parole under the sentence handed down Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Michael Hoff.

“I’m convinced that you’re a predator,” the judge angrily told the defendant. “You are a danger to young children and every parent’s worst nightmare.”

Prosecutors said Sommers was the worst kind of predator, befriending single mothers and playing the role of mentor while he took sexual advantage of their children.

“The evidence at trial indicated that this defendant has been preying on children since the 1970s,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Yochelson of the Sex Crimes, Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Unit. “This sentence today effectively puts an end to a career of sexual molestation.” Deputy Public Defender Dennis Cohen argued for leniency contending his client should not be “warehoused.” Prosecutors disagreed pointing to his many young victims and his criminal history.

Sommers has an arrest record dating back 27 years including an incident in 1980 when he allegedly exposed himself in front of two girls ages 6 and 8. The case was later dismissed. In 1982, he was convicted of “willful cruelty to a child” after fondling an 11-year-old girl and masturbating in front of a 14-year-old girl, according to court documents.

In the latest incident, which prosecutors said took place in November 1995, Sommers showed pornographic movies and publications to two boys ages 8 and 11 and told the older boy to fondle him.

In court documents Sommers said he had worked at a number of Los Angeles area schools, including Birmingham High in Van Nuys, Littlerock High, Antelope Valley Union High School and Advocate School in Van Nuys.