Bernie Ward be damned... pretty nasty stuff.

Quote :

"SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The ABC7 I-Team has the inside story of what lead up to the arrest of popular talk-radio host, Bernie Ward, on federal child pornography charges. It's an investigation you'll see Only On 7. We warn you that some of the information is graphic. Bernie Ward got indicted in December and got fired from his job at KGO Radio, effective at the end of last year. Now, police reports just obtained by the I-Team tell us who blew the whistle on Ward, and how he came to send the woman child porn, by his own admission. The case against Bernie Ward began with a phone call to the Oakdale Police Department, just outside Modesto. Story continues below Advertisement "We received a report from a local resident of Oakdale that she had gotten an e-mail message and pornographic material involving juveniles," says Chief Marty West with the Oakdale Police Department. The woman gave police the photographs and a transcript of her online conversation with Bernie Ward. It's Christmas week, three years ago. Ward's on his home computer using the screen name "Vincentlio." He begins the chat with "Good afternoon, mistress." The woman using the name "Sexfairy" answers, "How was your day, slave?" In explicit detail, Ward describes being humiliated sexually. At one point, he asks, "Are you going to make me feel dirty, mistress?" "Sexfairy" answers, "Yes, I am." Ward discusses group sex he had at an infamous porn theater in San Mateo. Then, nearly an hour into the conversation, he brings up photographs, "I love trading pictures." "Sexfairy" answers, "and why haven't I gotten any pics, slave? Send me some." Ward sends several pictures -- one of a woman and two children. Ward describes her as a mother in her late thirties, she's topless. He says the naked boy is 14, that the girl wearing clothes is 12. They're all touching in a sexual way. "Sexfairy" writes, "brb," (be right back). A half hour later, she's on the phone with police, reporting Bernie Ward for child porn. They tell her to keep chatting with Ward. "It would be important to the case to gather as much information as possible in support of bringing charges against the person that's sending these pornographic messages," says Chief West. In the days that follow, "Sexfairy" asks Ward for more pictures -- he complies. Then, police get a search warrant for Ward's AOL account. E-mail sent and received by "Vincentlio" had pictures attached. An investigator writes, "several of the photographs depicted children engaged in or simulating sexual acts with adults or other children." The ages of the children in the pictures -- four to 17 years old. "Bernie is an upstanding pillar of the community," says Jeannette Boudreau, Ward's civil attorney. Ward's criminal defense and civil attorneys declined to be interviewed on camera Wednesday. However, they repeated what they've said from the beginning -- that Ward was doing research for a book. "Whatever he did was inadvertent, it was something that was a violation maybe of the letter of the law, but certainly the one thing Bernie is not is a child pornographer. He's not a child molester," Boudreau told us in December of 2007. They also now say Ward was role-playing during the online chats with "Sexfairy" and that all details of his sexual activity were 100-percent false. The former KGO Radio host is facing two counts for distribution of child pornography and one count for receipt of child porn. With a jury trial set for June, ABC7 legal analyst, Dean Johnson, says the transcript of the Internet chats knocks down Ward's claim that he was researching a book. "That's very bad news for Bernie because in these messages we not only have an almost systematic knocking down of every defense that could be raised to possession or distribution of child pornography," says Johnson. Also, from the federal case file, we learned Ward's conditions of release on his $250,000 bond. He surrendered his passport. He's confined to his home with electronic monitoring -- he can leave only for work and to drive his children to and from school. His computer use is limited to his employment and he cannot have unsupervised contact with minors other than his children. A difficult time for Ward, now, and a grim outlook for his future. "If these Internet conversations are accurate, if they're truthful, if they correctly reflect what Bernie said, Bernie is potentially in a lot of trouble," says Johnson. There's so much more in the police report that we can't discuss because it's just too graphic. Federal prosecutors declined to be interviewed for this report. We've been unable so far to contact the woman known as "Sexfairy." I did reach Bernie Ward directly and he says he would like to tell his side of the story, but he has to take his attorneys' advice not to talk. There are more new details of the case in the I-Team blog here. Have a tip on this or another investigation? E-mail the ABC7 I-Team or call 1-888-40-I-TEAM. "

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/iteam&id=5956230

How in the hell am I just hearing about this?



Oh, because he's a liberal talk radio host. But let Rush slip a pill and it's a front line news story for 6 months.

2/15/2008 8:43:30 AM

Who the fuck is bernie ward?

2/15/2008 8:45:23 AM

Syndicated radio talk show host.


Even the host of "God Talk" on Sundays.

2/15/2008 8:46:18 AM

Wow that's shady.

2/15/2008 8:47:26 AM

Yeah, he's a sick pervert.


My God, though, if this were Rush Limbaugh, it would be headlines all day every day. You'd be lucky to hear about this story outside of TWW.

2/15/2008 8:49:24 AM

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that rush is famous and this guy is not. Just a wild ass guess.


But I guess you aren't concerned about reality -- this is your stage to feign outrage for the day. You go girl.


[Edited on February 15, 2008 at 8:55 AM. Reason : .]

2/15/2008 8:53:09 AM

all crimes aside, it's obvious that Rush Limbaugh is far more widely known than Bernie Ward.

It's like how every time Britney Spears takes a shit, we hear about it from every news venue on the planet, but if some D-list celebrity rapes his sister, we might get a blurb on it from Nancy Grace.

2/15/2008 8:55:28 AM

Yes, you might want to compare someone like Bill Mahr with Rush, not some guy none of us have to google to find out who they are.


Then again, no one would be surprised if Bill Mahr was charged with some crazy sex scandal.

2/15/2008 9:04:35 AM

I've heard of Bernie Ward. I've listened to his show a few times as well.

Regardless, I believe there's an underlying reason why this story hasn't made it to the news whatsoever and that has to do largely with political affiliation.

Rush Limbaugh took pills. This guy solicited and exchanged child pornography. There's a huge difference in the level of their crimes.


Yes Rush is much more famous. But when Amy Winehouse goes on a drug binge, it's on the hollywood faux news shows like entertainment tonight. But Rush can pop a vicodin and it's headlines for months.

2/15/2008 9:11:54 AM

Quote :

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that rush is famous and this guy is not. Just a wild ass guess"

Lot's of people get arrested for child porn you never hear about. It doesn't mean there is a conspiracy in the "left-wing media". I've never heard of Benny Ward and I will probably forget about him after I leave this thread.

2/15/2008 9:18:40 AM

hahahahhaaha

who the fuck is bernie wald!!!!!!??!!?/1!?!

2/15/2008 9:20:10 AM

How many listeners does this guy have?

Regardless, this guy is a public figure who has had some kind of influence, probably albeit small, on public opinion and should be held accountable for his actions.

From wikipedia:

Quote :

"Ward is a Roman Catholic and former priest of the Catholic Society of the Precious Blood order"

Time to bash Catholics now, a popular soap box past time.

2/15/2008 9:21:51 AM

lol, i guess it all makes sense now that it's come out that he's a catholic priest.

2/15/2008 9:23:11 AM

Quote :

"Ward has received the Scripps Howard Award for Excellence in Journalism for his investigative journalism in a ten-part series, Heaven Help Us, which explored allegations of financial and sexual misconduct of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.[3]"

What a fucking hypocrite.

2/15/2008 9:25:40 AM

Quote :

"Ward's attorney does not dispute the activity, but instead claims the child pornography Ward freely distributed was for research for a book on hypocrisy in America that has not been published to date.[1][2]"

LOL

2/15/2008 9:26:57 AM

Well, was a Catholic priest. He's had his share of stupid comments and controversies, and he's been popular enough to be on the political talkshow circuit.

2/15/2008 9:27:23 AM

Quote :

"he cannot have unsupervised contact with minors other than his children."

anyone think that maybe his own children are in danger? i mean, just a thought here.

2/15/2008 9:35:34 AM

Who the fuck is bernie ward?

2/15/2008 9:51:11 AM

You guys are n00bs. Don't you remember this movie?

2/15/2008 12:49:50 PM

obviously the liberal elites have used some sort of memory erasing trick to make us all forget who Bernie Ward is

2/15/2008 8:06:30 PM

I've never heard of Bernie Ward but there do seem to be a lot of people talking about hiM: http://news.google.com/news?q=Bernie+Ward&sourceid=mozilla2&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wn

2/16/2008 2:05:20 PM

Quote :

"My God, though, if this were Rush Limbaugh, it would be headlines all day every day."

um, lots of people know who rush is, which would make it news worthy. who the fuck is bernie ward?

2/17/2008 11:42:54 AM

^^ umm, i would look a bit more closely at those results. In the top 10, 3 of those news links are to local San Francisco newspapers, 2 are local San Francisco TV channels, 1 is a website dedicated to outing celebrity crimes (thesmokinggun), and the remaining 4 are unrelated to this story, and just show up because the names "Bernie" and "Ward" are pretty common.

Then, when sorted by date, here are the top results. Only 3 (1 of them satire) has anything to do with this story:
1 - "radio talk show host Bernie Ward" from Anorak.co.uk (satire)
2 - "a Club which is backed by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore"
3 - “It’s very difficult to get to the state tournament,” Bellarmine coach Bernie Salazar
4 - he federal child-pornography charges filed against former radio talk show host Bernie Ward
5 - Junior guard Bernie Ward made two free throws
6 - When radio talk show host Bernie Ward was arrested last year on child pornography charges
7 - State steward Kevin Sheen did not participate; and in his absence, Bernie Hettel
8 - More than 30 years have not dimmed in the least the memories of golden era of Vol hoops, of Bernie and Ernie
9 - But the city's last venture into the furniture business didn't exactly trigger sales numbers high enough to make Bernie & Phyl's or Bob's Discount Furniture
10 - A year ago, councillors admonished Ward 3 councillor Bernie Morelli


of course, I would chalk all this up to what others here have said - this guy is a small time player, not even close to the scale or Rush or O'Reilly or Hannity. On his wikipedia page, it says "Ward's talk show was nationally syndicated until 1996 when ratings began declining." so this guy hasn't been broadcasted nationally 11 years, clearly a major media force.

2/17/2008 12:33:19 PM

Ward is a Roman Catholic and former priest of the Catholic Society of the Precious Blood order.

from wikipedia

if only God allowed catholic priests to be married

(wasn't Peter the supposed first pope?)
(wasn't Peter married?)

2/18/2008 12:32:20 PM