With his sobbing family looking on in a San Francisco courtroom, former KGO radio host Bernie Ward today completed his tumble from one of the Bay Area's most popular liberal voices on the local airwaves to a pariah caught up in the world of online child pornography.
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker sentenced Ward to seven years and three months in federal prison, calling the disgraced celebrity a "troubled individual'' whose downfall is a "personal tragedy.'' Ward now must turn himself in to U.S. Marshals by noon Friday to begin his prison term.
Ward declined to comment after the hearing, where his family and friends sat in the gallery, his wife and son in the front row clutching each others' hands. Ward hugged his family when he emerged from the courtroom and walked away with his lawyer. Before the sentence was handed down, Ward spoke briefly to the judge, saying, "I regret the harm this has caused my family, my friends, and this community.''
The 57-year-old Ward pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of distributing child pornography, the result of an investigation that was triggered by his online chats with an online dominatrix who turned him in to police when she grew concerned about images he had of young children. The former Roman Catholic priest and father of four went into federal court in San Francisco knowing he would be headed to prison for a minimum of five years under strict federal sentencing guidelines for child porn cases.
In fact, the hearing highlighted the harsh penalties defendants now face when convicted of downloading child porn onto their computers. Even Walker said he was "not at all convinced'' that sending defendants such as Ward to prison is the best way to address the societal problem of child porn proliferating on the Internet. Ward is one of the mounting numbers of defendants in the Bay Area and across the country facing federal convictions for child porn. A recent Mercury News analysis found that child porn prosecutions in the federal courts have jumped from just a few dozen in the mid-1990s to thousands per year in the nation's federal courts.
But federal prosecutors urged Walker to sentence Ward to nine years in prison, describing his conduct in recent court papers as "amoral, universally unacceptable and aberrant.'' The government's court documents alleged that Ward possessed images of sex acts on children as young as three years old, and revealed his online exchanges with the dominatrix in which he discussed his sexual attraction to children.
"These images depicted these minors suffering the most horrific torment,'' Steve Grocki, a Justice Department lawyer who led the Ward prosecution, said to Walker. "He traded in the currency of human suffering.''
Under his plea agreement, Ward admitted sending dozens of porn images via email. But his lawyer urged Walker to impose the lowest possible sentence, saying Ward began downloading the images as part of journalism research that went awry, spiralling out of control when he began drinking heavily. Doron Weinberg, Ward's attorney, told Walker the child porn downloading "spanned a brief period in an exemplary life.''
"What is profoundly sad is that Bernie Ward is a good man," Weinberg told the judge.
Dozens of Ward's supporters wrote letters to the judge, extolling the talk show host and urging leniency. At the same time, groups aligned against child abuse have pressed for the harshest possible sentence for Ward to make an example of him in the fight against online child porn.
Ward filled KGO's airwaves for three hours every night, an outspoken liberal who took on the Iraq war, conservative causes and President George W. Bush. He also hosted the station's "God Talk'' show on Sunday mornings, now hosted by San Jose State professor Brent Waters, who plans to discuss the child pornography issue on this Sunday's show. KGO fired Ward after the child porn charges came to light.
#1
Even the commenters at Democratic Underground are mostly down on him. A little tinfoil hat speculation about CIA involvement, but no real show of support.
Posted by: Mike ||
08/29/2008 9:19 Comments ||
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A Bahraini court sentenced a 33-year-old Saudi man to one year in jail for prostituting his wife and living off the money she earned, press reported Thursday.
The couple were arrested after the girl invited an undercover police officer to their home and charged him 50 Bahraini dinars (approximately 130 dollars) for sex, Bahrain's Gulf Daily News reported.
The 16-year-old told the Lower Criminal Court that her husband helped her find clients and she would give him what she had earned, the paper said. The Saudi girl admitted to working as a prostitute and was sentenced to six months in jail.
I'm mildly surprised: she wasn't stoned, and he got a longer prison sentence.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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As an islamic country goes, Bahrain is fairly "liberal", especially in contrast with Magic Kingdom,
A charity in the West Bank offered shelter on Wednesday to a mentally handicapped Palestinian woman whose father had made her live for most of the past 20 years in a room under his house. Police found Nawal al-Masalmeh and her brother Bassam, who suffers similar disabilities, in an unlit and unventilated cellar on Tuesday during a raid aimed at suspected arms and drug dealers in the village of Beit Awa near the city of Hebron.
The father, Ibrahim al-Masalmeh, 63, denied any wrongdoing and said he kept his adult children underground to save them from being harassed and abused by people in the village.
Palestinian police had said on Tuesday that Masalmeh told them he hid his children in the cellar because he was ashamed of them and did not want people to laugh at him.
The children's mother died years ago and their father remarried. He has two children from his second marriage.
The case has highlighted shortcomings in mental health care in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory. The mental health charity which offered shelter to Nawal said both siblings, aged in their late 30s, had been in its care for two months in 2001. But they had been sent home to their father because staff at the center could not cope with them.
Mohammad Misk, head of the charity centre in Hebron, said he would now let Nawal return because her father appeared to have neglected her. But he said Bassam needed more specialized care, which his institution could not provide.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Yeah, keep marrying your cousins.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
08/29/2008 9:02 Comments ||
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#1
As sad as any story you would ever hear. The Tallahassee police, beginning with the Chief should be face civil charges of reckless endangerment, and be fired. The two a$$hat druggies should get death.
#3
The Chief doesn't sound as if he has any plans to change anything.
Just a ho-hum for the cops.
I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
08/29/2008 7:46 Comments ||
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#4
Kid didn't have a clue, just a pound dealer trying to stay out of jail. Hell, she sold pot mainly for fun - most of her dough came from Mom and Dad (who got serious lawyers). Claims bill already filed with the legislature.
#7
Ugh. Idiot cops. Put a naive college-age jewish girl, who is an occasional pot use,r up against two hardened sociopaths, and the cops were thinking there'd be a good outcome? The police chief is really corrupt AND stupid. So sorry for the family.
And the answer is...NO!
A crocodile killed and devoured a 25-year-old man in Bangladesh after he waded into a pond next to a shrine hoping to be blessed by the animal. Police said that Rubel Sheikh and his mother had travelled 30 miles from their home to visit the Muslim shrine of Khan Jahan Ali, where the attack happened. Hope mom had her camera...
Officers said that hundreds of people visit the shrine every day to offer hens and goats to the five crocodiles living in the pond. Part of the ritual also involves bathing in the water, meaning that pilgrims have to take their chances with the fierce inhabitants of the pond. Pilgrims. The other white meat...
"He went into the pond hoping to be blessed when a crocodile attacked him and dragged him into the deep part of the pond," said Inspector Humayun Kabir of the local police. He's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living. Until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then...oh, sorry that's a shark.
"This is a very unusual incident. Normally, the crocodiles are very friendly and do not harm people." Ah, yes. Friendly crocodiles. Like Wally Gator, except he...eats people.
Inspector Kabir said that despite the threat posed by the hungry crocodiles, about 25 people dived into the pond following the attack on Wednesday. Probably figured the magic crocodiles were full, so this would be about as good a time as any for a dip...
However they could find no trace of Mr Sheikh's remains. His body washed up on the side of the pond later. Oooops. There he is. Bring the bucket, Mahmoud.
Inspector Kabir said that most of the corpse had been eaten by the crocodiles. Burp...
#1
Probably figured the magic crocodiles were full, so this would be about as good a time as any for a dip...
I think crocs have a very slow metabolism, they eat, store fat in their tail, and go without eating for quite some time. So, trick to bath over there is to go AFTER the other guy has been eaten, pretty simple if you time that right.
#4
JM, have a poor taste joke here. "Gustav is heading for NO. Houston is expecting to declare state of emergency - police and castle law citizens expecting refugees."
BERLIN (AP) - The U.S. Department of Defense says the United States plans to cease operations at 15 minor Army facilities in Germany amid a wider effort to realign the military's overseas structure. A statement Thursday says the department has determined that the facilities are surplus to requirements because of changes already carried out "and the attendant reduction in installation and personnel support requirements."
They include barracks, family housing areas and storage areas at Idar-Oberstein, Dexheim and elsewhere. Their current annual operating costs total some $15 million.
The Department of Defense says the site closures will affect 49 military personnel, 350 U.S. civilians and 140 local employees. The facilities will be returned to German authorities - many of them this year or next.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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For any Germany vets, a while back I found a website that has before and after photos of some of the Stuttgart Kaserns that have been returned to Germany. The Germans lost no time in completely rebuilding many of them as commercial redevelopments.
#2
In many cases, Germans age 55 to 60 and over have an entirely different view of Americans and the United States than do the younger generation. It probably is time to pull out of Germany and possibly even NATO.
In many cases, Germans age 55 to 60 and over have an entirely different view of Americans and the United States than do the younger generation.
Just like people who are multi-generational social welfare slugs recipients who believe the world owes them an existence, nations that have relied upon military welfare develop the same attitude. They become rather indignant towards their donors.
#6
Close everything, except maybe the hospital since it is at a nice halfway point between the Middle East and the US. Realign the bases and troops in Poland and the Ukraine.
Just weeks after former presidential candidate John Edwards admitted cheating on his wife, he's not shying away from public speaking engagements -- and his fee has gone up, his agent says.
Edwards is due to speak at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Oct. 14. The agent for the former North Carolina senator has told the university student group organizing the event that Edwards is looking to add to his speaking calendar and that he's charging more, said university spokeswoman Robin Kaler. Edwards is to speak on "The American Dream," Kaler said. Tickets are free, but the student group is paying him $65,000.
Kaler said the student group gave Edwards the opportunity to back out of the speech in light of his admission to having an extramarital affair. Neither Kaler nor the student group would give the Chicago Sun-Times the name of Edwards' agent. Edwards could not be reached for comment. Edwards' other appearances include a September speech with wife Elizabeth at Salem State College in Massachusetts, according to college spokesman Jim Glynn.
Edwards has come under fire in the past for his speaking fees. In 2006, he was paid $55,000 to speak at the University of California-Davis about poverty.
Who better to talk about poverty than a rich lawyer?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/29/2008 10:12 ||
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C'mon, guys....have you priced formula and diapers lately?
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields ||
08/29/2008 10:41 Comments ||
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#2
This speech will most likely be on the moral decline of American society.
#3
Well, if people agree to pay him insane sums of money to benefit from his "wisdom", then, why shouldn't he do it? He's not the idiot here, those are the ones wanting him to speak - but, of course, the decline of sense of public decency is the real issue here.
#8
Does he get the family hotel rate for bringing momma and baby?
His wife was supposed to appear with him but has canceled, giving no reason. I can think of a few.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/29/2008 19:43 Comments ||
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A woman who appears to be promiscuous in her sexual behaviour cannot be forced into a sexual relationship and nobody has a "licence" to rape her, the Supreme Court has said. "Even if the victim in a given case has been promiscuous in her sexual behaviour earlier, she has a right to refuse to submit herself to sexual intercourse to anyone and everyone because she is not a vulnerable object or prey for being sexually assaulted by anyone and everyone," the apex court observed.
Though the trial court had convicted the accused Munshi and another person for the rape of a 17-year old woman, the High Court acquitted the accused on the ground that the victim was promiscuous in her sexual behaviour and had already lost her virginity.
Aggrieved by the acquittal, Uttar Pradesh Government filed the SLP in the apex court. "Even if it is hypothetically accepted that the victim had lost her virginity earlier, it did not and cannot in law give licence to any person to rape her," a bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Mukundakam Sharma passed the observation while quashing the acquittal order passed by the Allahabad High Court in favour of a rape accused.
Upholding the appeal, the apex court on perusal of the medical and other evidence said that even assuming that the victim was previously accustomed to sexual intercourse, the same cannot be a ground for disbelieving her testimony or convicting the accused. "On the contrary, the question which was required to be adjudicated was did the accused commit rape on the victim on the occasion complained of."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Spoil anyone's plans for a fun vacation in India? No? I didn't think so.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
08/29/2008 9:25 Comments ||
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#2
Gee, they just broke into the 11th century. Keep up the good work, you may evolve yet.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
With his sobbing family looking on in a San Francisco courtroom, former KGO radio host Bernie Ward today completed his tumble from one of the Bay Area's most popular liberal voices on the local airwaves to a pariah caught up in the world of online child pornography.
The 57-year-old Ward pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of distributing child pornography, the result of an investigation that was triggered by his online chats with an online dominatrix who turned him in to police when she grew concerned about images he had of young children. The former Roman Catholic priest and father of four went into federal court in San Francisco knowing he would be headed to prison for a minimum of five years under strict federal sentencing guidelines for child porn cases.
BERLIN (AP) - The U.S. Department of Defense says the United States plans to cease operations at 15 minor Army facilities in Germany amid a wider effort to realign the military's overseas structure. A statement Thursday says the department has determined that the facilities are surplus to requirements because of changes already carried out "and the attendant reduction in installation and personnel support requirements."
