SAN FRANCISCO
Bernie Ward to change not-guilty plea
Radio personality faces trial in month on child porn countsHenry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
(05-06) 21:21 PDT San Francisco -- Former radio talk show host Bernie Ward, who pleaded not guilty in December to distributing and receiving child pornography via the Internet, plans to change his plea Thursday, federal court records show.
Ward, 57, is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco to change his plea. He is a month away from going on trial.
Ward's attorney, Doron Weinberg, was unavailable for comment Tuesday night.
The case against Ward began when he engaged in sex chats with an online dominatrix and allegedly sent her pictures of children engaged in sexual activity, according to a police report.
The woman, who lives in Oakdale (Stanislaus County), became concerned after Ward allegedly sent her pictures in December 2004 showing children "engaged in or simulating sexual acts with adults or other children," Oakdale police Officer Benjamin Savage wrote in a report.
Ward sent her a photo of a naked boy sitting on a chair between a topless woman and a clothed girl, the police report said.
A federal grand jury indicted Ward, a former Catholic priest, in September on two counts distributing child pornography and one count of receiving child porn using the Internet.
After the indictment was unsealed in December, KGO-AM fired him from his job as a talk show host.
Ward pleaded not guilty to the charges in December and had insisted that he was innocent of any wrongdoing. Weinberg has said the conversations Ward had with the woman consisted only of role-playing as part of a book he was researching on hypocrisy.
Last month, Ward sought a ruling from the judge that would allow him to present a defense that he received and distributed "the charged contraband" for legitimate First Amendment purposes, namely to research and comment upon "social mores."
Federal prosecutors opposed any such ruling, saying in court papers that allowing such First Amendment defenses "would invite every defendant charged with child pornography crimes to suddenly become a legitimate researcher educating the masses via their Web log."
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page B - 9 of the San Francisco Chronicle