"Lion of the Left" Bernie Ward admits to child **** in plea deal (San
Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/08/BAIR10J9JC.DTL&feed=rss.news
(HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS AS MUCH AS I DID)
(05-08) 18:49 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Bernie Ward, the most prominent
liberal voice on Bay Area talk radio for more than two decades,
admitted Thursday to distribution of child ****ography by e-mail in a
plea deal that will send him to federal prison for at least five
years.
Ward, 57, a former Roman Catholic priest, was a fixture on KGO-AM 810
for three hours every weeknight, known in recent years for his fervent
denunciations of President Bush and the war in Iraq during his news
talk show. He also hosted "God Talk," a Sunday morning program on
religion, and was a prolific fundraiser for the station's charity
drives.
But his career disintegrated Dec. 6 with the unsealing of a federal
grand jury indictment, issued three months earlier, that charged him
with two counts of distributing and one count of receiving Internet
images of child ****ography. KGO fired him Dec. 31.
At a 30-minute hearing in federal court in San Francisco, Ward
admitted he was guilty of a single charge of distributing child
****ography, saying it involved "exchanging an image of a minor
engaged in ***ually explicit activity" in December 2004. The plea
agreement he signed, quoted in court, contained an admission that he
had sent between 15 and 150 ****ographic images via e-mail.
Delay in accepting plea
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said he was satisfied that
Ward was voluntarily admitting guilt, but he granted defense lawyer
Doron Weinberg's request to delay accepting the plea until a
sentencing hearing Aug. 28. If the plea had been formally entered
Thursday, Ward could have been sent to prison immediately.
Ward exchanged hugs with family members and friends before and after
the hearing. Wearing a suit and tie and looking grim, he described his
conduct succinctly to Walker, showed little hesitation when the judge
asked him about waiving his right to go to trial, and said of his
guilty plea, "I worked it out in conjunction with my attorney."
As part of the deal, Weinberg said outside court, federal prosecutors
agreed to drop two additional child ****ography charges and ask for a
sentence of no more than nine years. The maximum under the law is 20
years.
The case was prosecuted by the Justice Department in Wa****ngton, D.C.,
after the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco bowed out for
unstated reasons. The department issued a brief statement describing
Ward's plea agreement and had no further comment.
Ward initially pleaded not guilty and said he had downloaded a few
****ographic images over several weeks as research for a book on
hypocrisy among Americans who preach morality in public. But he was
confronted by a federal law that flatly prohibits possessing,
receiving or distributing child ****ography - regardless of intent -
and requires at least five years in prison for each conviction.
His hopes of maintaining a defense based on a constitutional right to
research taboo subjects appeared to be weakened further when police in
Oakdale (Stanislaus County) released transcripts in February of a
series of online *** chats between Ward and a dominatrix in December
2004 and January 2005.
The transcripts quote Ward as fantasizing about ****d children with no
apparent reference to any subject he was researching. Police said he
had sent photos to the woman that showed children engaged in ***ual
activity.
'Role playing' alleged
Weinberg said outside court Thursday that his client had been "playing
roles" in the message exchange.
Weinberg said he would argue for a five-year sentence for Ward rather
than the nine years that prosecutors are seeking. He said a five-year
term could be reduced by about nine months for good behavior in
prison.
"In terms of his freedom, his future, he's lost almost everything,"
Weinberg said. "He's not going to be able to come out (of prison) and
return to the work he does so well."
In a preview of arguments at the sentencing hearing, Weinberg told the
judge that Ward was "a man with an impeccable record of service to his
community" and that the crime involved "an error of judgment rather
than ***ual proclivities."
Since his indictment was unsealed, Ward has been confined to his San
Francisco home, with electronic monitoring, as a condition of $250,000
bail. He has been allowed to leave only to work, to drive his children
to and from school, and to go to church.
Ward, a San Francisco native, went to St. Ignatius High School and the
University of San Francisco, and earned a master's degree in theology
from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He was ordained to
the priesthood with the Society of the Precious Blood in 1977 but left
two years later, explaining afterward that he wanted to marry and have
children. He has four children.
After the priesthood, Ward worked as a schoolteacher, served as
legislative assistant for then-Rep. Barbara Boxer for three years and
was hired by KGO in 1985. As an investigative re****ter, he won a
national award for a series of stories in the mid-1990s, in
partner****p with the San Francisco Examiner, that exposed financial
and ***ual improprieties in the San Francisco Archdiocese.
As a talk show host since 1992, Ward was called the "lion of the left"
by KGO and had a devoted following. His "God Talk" show, which he
described as the work closest to his heart, included discussions of
the Christian mission to help the poor and of misconduct in organized
religion, especially in his own Catholic faith.
Strict federal law
Ward's indictment, and his claim that he was a researcher rather than
an exploiter of children, focused attention on the strict federal law,
which considers motive and intent to be irrelevant. The rationale is
that anyone who possesses child ****ography adds to the national
market for a product that degrades youth.
In court papers, Weinberg had urged Walker to allow him to argue to
the jury that Ward had a "First Amendment-protected right to research
and comment upon societal mores," which included viewing ****ographic
images.
No court has recognized such a right, however, and a federal appeals
court in Virginia rejected it in a 2000 ruling upholding a
journalist's conviction. Justice Department lawyer Steven Grocki said
in a filing in Ward's case that the defense asserted by Weinberg
"would invite every defendant charged with child ****ography crimes to
suddenly become a legitimate researcher educating the m***** via their
blogs."
After Thursday's hearing, Weinberg said he still believes Ward had a
legitimate defense but one that was too risky to pursue. Any leniency
that prosecutors are now offering would disappear after a trial and
conviction, he said, and the price would be an additional "five or six
years of a man's life."
E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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