Aug 28, 2008 9:36 pm US/Pacific
Ex-Radio Host Ward Gets 7 Years For Child Porn
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
Former KGO radio talk show host and ex-Roman Catholic priest Bernie Ward was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison Thursday for distributing child pornography over the Internet.
U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker called the case a "personal tragedy" and said Ward has many laudable achievements related to his charitable work.
But the judge said he was troubled that Ward, who had crusaded against molestation of children, didn't seek help for his predilection toward child pornography.
Ward, 57, told the judge, "I regret my actions. I want to apologize for these actions. I take full responsibility for these actions."
Frequently called the "lion of the left" for his staunchly liberal views, Ward hosted a nightly talk program on news and politics as well as a religion program called "God Talk" on Sunday mornings on KGO-AM 810 in San Francisco. He also ran an on-air Thanksgiving charity drive each year.
The married father of four teenage children was fired from the station, where he had worked since 1992, after a federal grand jury indictment charging him with distributing child porn was made public him in December.
Ward was charged after exchanging sexually explicit instant messages with a Stanislaus County woman who used the screen name Sexfairy2005 in December 2004. The woman called the police after Ward sent her a photograph of two children engaged in a sex act.
The woman provided police with transcripts of their conversation where Ward discussed various sexual scenarios with his children, including how he was aroused when his daughter walked in the bathroom while he showered, according to court documents.
"I find it extremely troubling that a parent would say the things he wrote in those messages," Judge Walker said before sentencing him to seven years and three months.
Ward's wife and children attended the sentencing in Walker's San Francisco Federal Building courtroom.
The judge also ordered that Ward be given psychological treatment while in prison and be allowed to participate in an alcohol abuse recovery program.
Federal prosecutor Steve Grocki said that dozens of pornographic images of children as young as 2 or 3 years old were found on Ward's home computer, including masochistic images of children bound and gagged.
Grocki said some of the children depicted were subjected to "the most horrific torment of their lives."
The prosecutor told the judge that Ward traded pornography images with 10 other people. Ward had admitted during his plea to sending between 15 and 150 images to other individuals.
"He traded in the currency of children's suffering," Grocki said in arguing for a nine-year prison term.
Ward's attorney, Doron Weinberg, citing the numerous letters of support Ward received after pleading guilty to one count in May and his volunteer work, argued unsuccessfully for a five-year prison sentence - the mandatory minimum.
He said it would be a sufficient punishment because Ward didn't create, buy or sell the pornography.
Weinberg said Ward's involvement in downloading the child pornography began initially as journalistic research for a book but "lost its focus, at least in part because of the influence of alcohol."
"It's clear that it ended in a dark place," Weinberg said, but "Bernie Ward is a good man who has done an enormous amount of good."
The judge allowed Ward to turn himself in to prison officials at noon on Friday. He also granted a defense request that Ward be allowed to serve his sentence a minimum-security prison in Lompoc, in Santa Barbara County.
Ward's sentence could be reduced by about a year for good behavior in prison.
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