Levittown Man Gets Prison For Trafficking Turtles

LEVITTOWN, PA — A Levittown man who has worked as a political operative and news reporter will spend a half-year in federal prison for illegally trafficking protected turtles.

David Sommers, 64, was sentenced to six months imprisonment, and three years of supervised release, including six months of home detention, by U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody. Sommers also mush pay $250,000 in restitution.

He had pleaded guilty in the case in February.

Prosecutors say that, between Nov. 2011 and Oct. 2017, Sommers poached thousands of protected diamondback terrapins and their eggs from coastal marshes in New Jersey, then sold the turtles illegally.

During his sentencing hearing, the government offered evidence that the total market value of the sold and unsold turtles was well over $550,000.

"The defendant had a simple business plan: poach protected turtles and their eggs from their natural habitat, advertise them for sale online and then illegally ship them to customers by concealing the actual contents of the packages," said U.S. Attorney William McSwain. "Sommers represented himself as a legitimate reptile breeder, when he was in fact endangering the lives of these animals and breaking the law."

According to his plea, the trafficked turtles were taken from their marsh habitat in New Jersey from Aug. 7, 2014 to Oct. 24, 2017. Sommers admitted to sending a package containing 11 terrapin hatchlings to Canada in 2014, mislabeling the package as a book to avoid detection by customs authorities.

Canadian wildlife authorities intercepted the package, prosecutors say.

Diamondback terrapins are a semi-aquatic species of turtle native to brackish waters in the eastern and southern United States. They are not found in the wild in Pennsylvania and have a dwindling habitat in New Jersey.

Authorities say the terrapins are prized in the reptile pet trade because of their unique, diamond-shaped shell markings. They are protected under New Jersey law and by international treaty.

Due to declining populations, diamondback terrapins were listed as a threatened species in 2013. New Jersey banned collecting, possession and transporting the in 2016.

Sommers has worked on Republican political campaigns in Bucks County and is a former news reporter, having worked at The Trentonian, the Bucks County Courier-Times and other outlets.