Former KTVU news anchor Frank Somerville was charged earlier this week with driving under the influence following an arrest in late December in Oakland, Alameda County prosecutors and police. His next scheduled court appearance will be 9 a.m. May 6 at Oaklands Wiley Manuel courthouse, a district attorney spokesperson said. The longtime KTVU news anchor is married to his wife, Donna Wright, a television producer. The collision took place near the intersection of Grand Avenue and Broadway Street just after 7:45 p.m. Dec. 31, 2021, Oakland police said at the time. Federal jury finds Bay Area man guilty in string of East Bay bank robberies Since Somervilles suspension, two rallies have been held outside the KTVU studios in Jack London Square on Oct. 2 and and Oct. 12, both sparked by Somervilles reported desire to address disparities in media coverage of White crime victims like Petito versus women of color. 2 Frank Somerville Credit: Facebook/Frank Somerville Who is Frank Somerville's wife? When an officer-administered field sobriety test showed signs of impairment, Somerville consented to an alcohol screening test; he blew two tests, registering .239 and .219 blood-alcohol levels, according to the statement. Born Frank William Somerville on 19th March 1958 in San Luis Obispo, California, Frank Somerville is a journalist. George Kelly is a breaking news reporter for the Bay Area News Group's East Bay Times and Mercury News. Somerville does not believe that his Dec. 30 arrest in Oakland on suspicion of driving under the influence was a factor in the stations decision. ", Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. 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Officers who spoke with Somerville said he exhibited symptoms of being under the influence of an alcoholic beverage: bloodshot/watery eyes, thick/slurred speech, and odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from his person.. He also was off the air for much of last summer following a now-infamous May 30, 2021 newscast, when he repeatedly slurred and stumbled over his words and appeared to have trouble reading off the teleprompter. Jurors hopelessly deadlocked in Bay Point murder trial, mistrial declared Somerville, now 64, was arrested at 8:30 p.m. Dec. 30 in the 2200 block of Broadway following a collision between his 2014 Porsche 911 and a silver Audi, according to a probable cause statement by Officer Natalie Windham. KTVU anchor Frank Somerville anchors the five o'clock news at the KTVU studio on Tuesday, May 5, 2009, in Oakland, Calif. It's been one year since Somerville replaced longtime anchor Dennis . Alameda County DA charges former TV anchor, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Alameda County DA charges former TV anchor Frank Somerville with DUIs, Info stolen in Oakland ransomware attack set to be released, Woman suspected of making threats toward Christian schools campus in Walnut Creek arrested, Federal jury finds Bay Area man guilty in string of East Bay bank robberies, Jurors hopelessly deadlocked in Bay Point murder trial, mistrial declared, In wake of scandal, East Bay school district keeps a close eye on staff behavior. Get Morning Report and other email newsletters. A station spokesperson could not be reached as of Friday evening, and Eikel declined to comment. Joshua Bote is the tech editor at SFGATE. He grew up in the Los Angeles area, went to UC Berkeley and has previously worked as a news reporter at USA Today and SFGATE and as a music writer at NPR. Sources told the outlet that Somerville was informed by station management the next day that he was being suspended. "Frank Somerville to replace Dennis Richmond", "KTVU's Somerville settling in as Richmond's replacement", "Asiana: Anchor says KTVU never sounded-out racist pilot names", "KTVU anchor Somerville to take time away after slurred newscast", "Frank Somerville returns to KTVU after two months of leave", "Frank Somerville suspension: How the dispute over 'Gabby' Petito coverage unfolded at KTVU", "Frank Somerville says he's done at KTVU, apologizes to newsroom for 'drama', "Frank Somerville arrested for suspected DUI after crash", "Frank Somerville says KTVU wouldn't re-sign him: 'I am done', "Frank Somerville publicly opens up about arrest, KTVU exit", "Former KTVU Anchor Frank Somerville Speaks Publicly About Addiction Issues", "Image of Bay Area news anchor doing his daughter's hair touches people all over country | The Mommy Files | an SFGate.com blog", "Tender photo of TV anchor un-braiding daughter's hair goes viral", "A white dad does his black daughter's hair, and the Internet smiles", "10 Questions for Frank Somerville; Up Close and Personal with KTVU's Top Dog; And Something that may Surprise You", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frank_Somerville&oldid=1133399814, American television reporters and correspondents, Berkeley High School (Berkeley, California) alumni, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 16:12. As Somerville has pointed out on social media, he is the father of an adopted Black daughter. All this drama isnt good, Somerville said. "I feel like a total idiot," Somerville allegedly said. [8] He returned to the anchor chair on August 4 without addressing the incident that saw his brief departure. Somerville was booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin after his arrest, then released with a citation to appear in court. Meanwhile, the media coverage issue Somerville had hoped to raise has garnered plenty of attention in recent days as debate rages over how much is too much. Crime and Public Safety | Related Articles As of now, he is already 64 years old and his zodiac sign is Pisces. KTVU suspended veteran anchor Frank Somerville after the station news director nixed his proposal to add commentary about racial justice to coverage of the Gabrielle "Gabby" Petito homicide . All rights reserved, with driving under the influence following an arrest in late December in Oakland. Somerville reportedly told the producer that Eikel had approved a shortened version, a source said. Among them, whether the anchor was offering an effective or appropriate way to challenge the medias often lopsided obsession with stories about White women in jeopardy. The Berkeley native had been an intern at KTVU many years before. . Frank Somerville said Tuesday that he expects he has anchored his last newscast at KTVU, given that management hasn't contacted him since he was suspended in September for an off-air dispute. Somerville was pulled off the air over his coverage of Gabby's case, MSNBC host Joy Reiddiscussed the Gabby Petito case. KTVU news anchor Frank Somerville again has been removed from the air, but this time a newsroom spat not an on-air meltdown appears to be the reason. 2. Somerville wanted the tag to address domestic violence and the medias tendency to overlook reports about missing and slain women of color, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which obtained a copy of Somervilles original tag. KTVU was prepared to air a news report detailing the latest developments in the case. He first joined the San Francisco Bay Area station in 1991 and in 2008 became an anchor of the six o'clock and ten o'clock news broadcasts. [10] In November 2021, he said in an interview with the Bay Area News Group that KTVU had not contacted him and that "All indications are that Im never going to anchor at Channel 2 again. [5] He then attended San Francisco State University. ", He adds, "It makes me really sad, because Ive given 31 years to the station. If not, Ill go to other stations outside of the market. Former KTVU anchor Frank Somerville speaks about addiction struggles that he says spurred DUI wreck Former KTVU anchor Frank Somerville opened up about his struggles with addiction on Dec.. All Access Digital offer for just 99 cents! At the time, Somerville said he had not yet lined up offers to work at other stations but wanted to keep working and was disappointed about how his time at KTVU had ended. She has previously reported or edited for Bay Area news and lifestyle publications, including Walnut Creek Patch, and Diablo, Oakland and Alameda magazines, as well as The Nation in Bangkok, Thailand and The Economist. frank somerville house. The veteran anchor was told that the tagline was inappropriate and he apparently pushed back on it. Holland and Galvis insist the ultimate focus of their rallies was not Somerville, nor were they saying the media shouldnt cover Petitos killing. He is also survived by many uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews, extended family and friends. That's a shivering duck sheltering a puppy with its wings. The request was denied by KTVU news director Amber Eikel, who called the tagline inappropriate, a source told SFGATE in September, leading to criticism from the Oakland chapter of the NAACP. Former KTVU news anchor Frank Somerville was charged earlier this week with driving under the influence following an arrest in late December in Oakland, Alameda County prosecutors and police said. Somerville was hospitalized shortly after the incident and was booked at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. This latest incident, coming just six weeks after Somervilles return to the anchor desk, will undoubtedly trigger speculation about his future with the station. Sources said Eikel was willing to assign a reporter to do a separate, more in-depth story. He is due to appear Feb. 28. Get the latest posts delivered right to your inbox. Frank Somervilles 31-year career at KTVU, where his nightly anchoring duties made him one of the Bay Areas most beloved TV news personalities, officially came to an end Friday, as his contract expired and the station opted to not bring him back. Arianna Fitts would now be eight years old, but she hasnt been seen since 2016, and CNN is shining new light on her case in hopes of a breakthrough. So, nothing like this happens again. He was off air for much of the summer, following his now-infamous May 30 newscast, when he repeatedly slurred and stumbled over his words and appeared to have trouble reading off the teleprompter. The ABC News report also said that onlyabout one-fifth of missing person cases involving minorities are covered by the news, according to a 2016 analysis published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. The FBI has issued an arrest warrant for Brian Laundrie, Petitos 23-year-old fianc. They had told me long before that.. Crime and Public Safety | Leslie Shawn Rayburn posted this. He has been taking many steps to address the circumstances that led to this case, including attending meetings and working on himself so that nothing like this ever happens again, Dugan said. In further comments to Lieberman over the phone, reported on his 415 Media blog, Somerville allegedly insisted he had not been drinking, and had just mistakenly taken Ambien before going on the air. Somerville was not involved in that flub. Additionally, he spent his childhood in Berkeley and was raised there. Somerville did reply to local media commentator Rich Lieberman on Monday saying he'd be back on the air that night and that the incident was simply a mistake regarding his prescription medication. 1 newscast in the market. ), He disputed one comment that said he looked sick on a video he posted talking about an incident in which his daughter was allegedly racially profiled. [12], Somerville's suspension from KTVU would become permanent in January 2022 when his contract expired and KTVU would decide not to re-sign him. KTVU anchor Frank Somerville, one of the most recognizable of the Bay Area's news personalities having been on the air at KTVU since 1991, was pulled from a Sunday broadcast and has not returned since after slurring his speech on air. But as community groups voice frustration, questions also remain over Somervilles suspension. Somerville, who has a mixed-race daughter, wanted to make a statement at the end of a segment regarding "missing white woman syndrome," a term coined by the late Gwen Ifill about American media's obsession with the disappearance of young, pretty Caucasian women, when very little national attention is given to the thousands of people of color who go missing every year. Thats just a guess. Get Morning Report and other email newsletters. But a shortened version of the tag made it into the script for that evening's broadcast, which allegedly prompted Somerville's suspension for insubordination. Crime and Public Safety | Former SF anchor Frank Somerville publicly opens up about arrest, KTVU exit. Hes one of the highest paid anchors in the Bay Area, but his contract is up in March. When I saw Will Smith stand up for his wife, it reminded me of what I didnt do 30 years ago, he says in the video. Over the years he has become one of the station's most recognisable having presented on screen for more than two decades. An ABC News report,citing statistics from the FBIs National Crime Information Center stated that at the end of 2020, the FBI had more than 89,000 active missing person cases, and 45 percent of those were people of color. The multiple Emmy winner lives in Oakland, grew up in Berkeley and graduated from Berkeley High and San Francisco State University. His suspension came just six weeks after a previous leave of absence for health issues when he struggled to read his teleprompter and slurred his words during a broadcast in May. He became co-anchor of KTVU's morning news program in 1992 and was the first anchor of the 5 p.m. newscast when it launched in 2005. I feel great, he said in response. 69 m or 226 ft) 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km 2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. For whatever reason, they decided not to re-sign me.. Frank Somerville finally returns to KTVU: Are viewers owed an explanation? [citation needed] He attended Berkeley High School, graduating in 1976. 2. Previously: Anchorman Frank Somerville's Future at KTVU In Doubt As Rumors Swirl About High Drama In the Newsroom. Jay C. Barmann is a fiction writer and web editor who's lived in San Francisco for 20+ years. A search-warrant obtained blood sample later yielded a result of .24 blood-alcohol content. Staff writers Harry Harris and Rick Hurd contributed to this report. According to station sources, Somerville, 63, has been "suspended indefinitely" by Channel 2 management after a disagreement with news director Amber Eikel over coverage of the Gabby Petito. AdWeek's TVSpy blog is covering his disappearance from the air as well. Ive given my heart and soul to Channel 2. 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Somervilles arrest came after he crashed his Porsche into another car in a downtown intersection in an accident caught on video. The collision occurred eastbound on West Grand Avenue, Windham wrote. George Galvis, executive director of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, which helped organize the Oct. 12 rally, said KTVUs silence is a response.. Get all the latest & greatest posts delivered straight to your inbox, Longtime Bay Area Anchor Frank Somerville Off Air Since Slurred-Speech Broadcast On Sunday, AdWeek's TVSpy blog is covering his disappearance, fake names of the pilots of Asiana Airlines Flight 214, Day Around the Bay: San Jose Man Arrested In Connection With PG&E Transformer Explosions, Berkeley Poised to Close Famed Anthropology Library, Angry Students In Full Occupy Mode, The SFPD Brags About Busting Johns Seeking Sex Workers on Capp Street. Longtime KTVU anchor Frank Somerville shared a Facebook post Saturday reflecting on his arrest and his termination from . As per the sources, he was named after his father's friend Frank Patty. KTVU's "Ten O'Clock News" has long held the top spot for the Bay Area's highest rated news broadcast. Who is Frank Somerville? But the way this story captivated the nation has many wondering why not the same media attention when people of color go missing?" Why is 'Gabriel Salazar car accident' trending? The crash had nothing to do with it, Somerville said, saying managers had decided to cut him loose months earlier. Somerville, who has an adopted black daughter, reportedly pushed back after the tagline was refused. Its really, really sad, because Ive given 31 years to the station, he said. Frank Somerville, a veteran TV newscaster suspended from KTVU following a dispute over coverage of the Gabby Petito homicide case, said Tuesday that he believes he is not returning to the station . Write by: . In November, Somerville insisted he was right to push for the commentary, but he publicly apologized for all the drama because of the way it affected people who work at the station. But even with such declarations, community activists say they have yet to hear from the station managers or Fox about their concerns. As per his date of birth, his birth sign is Pisces. He took a nine-week leave to focus on his health and had only returned in August. According to The Mercury News, Somerville wanted to add a tagline to a segment about the case to point out the disparity in the coverage of missing persons cases of white women relative to women of color. The New York-born Petito was slain during a cross-country van trip with her fiance, Brian Laundrie. I would love to work at one of the other stations in the market. The request was denied by KTVU news director Amber Eikel, who called the tag line inappropriate, according to the source. Silence irks activists, stirs questions about suspension. I would give anything to work there. 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The City of San Leandro also issued an official proclamation honoring him for speaking out about missing women of color and setting an example of strength and equity to our community and those worldwide.. Following a car crash late last December, embattled Bay Areareporter Frank Somerville now faces two DUI charges. More than a month after Frank Somerville was suspended from KTVU, the popular anchor remains off the air with no word from either him or the station about if or when he might return. The driver of the Audi stepped out before Somerville pushed the vehicle across the intersection with his car before ramming it into a light pole, according to documents provided to SFGATE by the district attorneys office. After the initial collision, the driver of the Audi got out of their vehicle and Somerville, in his Porsche, allegedly pushed the Audi across the intersection of Broadway and West Grand Avenue until the Audi hit a pole on the southwest corner of the intersection, Windham's statement said. Holland wondered if KTVU or Fox simply hope the controversy will disappear. Since his departure from KTVU, he has steadily posted videos on Instagram featuring an assortment of commentary. The couple has two daughters - one of which, Callie, who was adopted in 2005 when she was a baby. FRANK Somerville has reportedly been pulled off the air at KTVU over his coverage of the Gabby Petito case. Mr. The case of Gabby has sparked a national outcry as her fianc Brian Laundrie continues to evade authorities. Mini Bio (1) Frank Somerville co-anchors the weekday editions of "KTVU Channel 2 News at 5," "KTVU Channel 2 News at 6" and "The Ten O'Clock News on KTVU Channel 2." Somerville joined San Francisco's KTVU Channel 2's Mornings on 2 and The Noon News in January 1992. Longtime KTVU anchor Frank Somerville shared a Facebook post Saturday reflecting on his arrest and his termination from KTVU nearly a year later. 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Galvis said activists intentions werent to wag the finger but to foster a dialogue with a media organization thats a Bay Area icon with tremendous power.. In a May broadcast of KTVUs 10 p.m. news program, Somerville was recorded slurring his words and abruptly left midbroadcast with no explanation. Somervilles Bay Area roots helped make him popular with viewers. By the end of the broadcast, co-anchor Julie Haener had taken over solo, and did the signoff for the show. But Reynolds also faulted KTVU for fueling the controversy by not meeting with activists to discuss their complaints about coverage, saying that journalism organizations must offer a level of transparency and accountability., While not publicly commenting to reporters about his suspension, Somerville took to Instagram late last month to thank his fans for his support in standing up for what he believes no matter the consequences., We in the media cant be afraid to look in the mirror and ask ourselves tough questions about race and our coverage, Somerville said. [1] During his three decades at KTVU in Oakland, California, Somerville received three Emmy Awards, including one for best on-camera news anchor. Last fall, he told this news organization that he anticipated his days anchoring at KTVU were over after he was suspended in September for an off-air dispute about the coverage of the Gabby Petito case. TV Streaming | He grew up in the Los Angeles area, went to UC Berkeley and has previously worked as a news reporter at USA Today and SFGATE and as a music writer at NPR. Somerville is expected to appear in court Feb. 28, the Bay Area News Group reports. Meanwhile, Oakland police are awaiting the results of blood tests before turning the case over to Alameda County prosecutors to decide whether to file charges. Info stolen in Oakland ransomware attack set to be released Somerville's attorney said that he is "attending meetings and working on himself. "No one at the station Fox/KTVU has contacted me. In a statement Thursday afternoon, Somervilles attorney Shannan Dugan acknowledged the charges. Woman suspected of making threats toward Christian schools campus in Walnut Creek arrested She'd now be 8 years old, and her case got little national attention at the time and she remains unaccounted for. A tag is a brief closing to a story thats typically read by an anchor. Elevation. Visitation will be held on Monday, March 6th 2023 from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM at the Cusick Funeral Home (80 Mountain Ave, Somerville, NJ 08876). Now, the tagline controversy has put Somerville in a position that journalists usually find uncomfortable: instead of reporting on the story, he is the story. Frank Somerville has spoken out for the first time since his Dec. 30 arrest for a suspected DUI. He took an indefinite leave of absence in June following a broadcast of the TheTenO'ClockNewsonKTVU in which he slurred lines and left mid-broadcast, resulting in speculation over his health and well-being. Somerville, driving a 2014 Porsche 911, rear-ended a silver Audi. Somerville has a Black daughter and wanted to add a note at the end of any news story on Petito about the rates of domestic violence for Black women in America. Somerville, a white male, is being lionized and becoming the topic of the story and not the women who have been ignored, Reynolds said. ", "My guess is that Im not coming back to Channel 2, Somerville tells the Chronicle. Sign up for NBC Bay Areas Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
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