In late 2007, a federal grand jury indicted Bernie Ward, a prominent liberal talk show personality, on two counts of distributing and one count of receiving Internet images of child pornography. Ward accepted a plea deal where he admits to the crime.
In the three page indictment (PDF file) it says that "Between on or about December of 2004 and January of 2005, Ward did knowingly distribute child pornography, as defined in Title 18, United States Code Section 2256(8)(A), that had been mailed, shipped and transported in interstate and foreign commerce by any means, including by computer."
The third count was for knowingly receiving child pornography.
Today news reports say that Ward signed a plea agreement, in which he admits to distribution of child pornography by e-mail, which will send him to prison for at least five years.
Ward was a host for a San Francisco Bay Area talk show on KGO-AM 810, for over two decades and is a a former Roman Catholic priest.
After the indictment was unsealed last December 6, KGO fired him on December 31, 2007.
At a 30-minute hearing in federal court in San Francisco, Ward admitted he was guilty of a single charge of distributing child pornography, saying it involved "exchanging an image of a minor engaged in sexually explicit activity" in December 2004. The plea agreement he signed, quoted in court, contained an admission that he had sent between 15 and 150 pornographic images via e-mail.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped the two additional pornography related charges and the judge granted Ward's defense attorney, Doron Weinberg's, request to delay officially accepting the plea until the time of sentencing which will be in August. Otherwise Ward could have been sent to prison immediately.
Ward initially pleaded not guilty and said he had downloaded a few pornographic 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 pornography - 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 sex chats between Ward and a dominatrix in December 2004 and January 2005.
According to federal law, Ward's defense, in which he claimed he was participating in the distribution and/or receiving of child pornography, was for research purposes, did not stand up because the law does not take "intent" into consideration. The reason for that is because "anyone who possesses child pornography adds to the national market for a product that degrades youth."
Weinberg originally argued to Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who presided over the case, that Ward was protected under "First Amendment-protected right to research and comment upon societal mores", which he contended included child pornography, but that has never been recognized by a court as a right.
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 pornography crimes to suddenly become a legitimate researcher educating the masses via their blogs."
Prosecutors are arguing for a nine year sentence to be leveled at Ward but his attorney is urging for a lesser sentence of five years, which he hopes would be reduced by about nine months for good behavior in prison.
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