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.. Longtime KTVU anchor Frank Somerville is facing two DUI charges following a car accident on Dec. 30, 2021. He was named after his father's childhood friend, Frank Patty, and his paternal grandfather, William Somerville. So, nothing like this happens again. In a May broadcast of KTVU's 10 p.m. news program,. As first reported by the Mercury News on Thursday, the venerated KTVU broadcaster faces two misdemeanor charges from the Alameda County District Attorneys Office one for driving under the influence of alcohol and a second for driving with a blood alcohol level of over 0.08% with potentially enhanced penalties because his BAC was over 0.15%. This property is currently available for sale and was listed by MLS PIN on Mar . Somerville did not reply to repeated efforts to contact him, nor did representatives from Fox News, who said last month only that the anchor had been suspended pending further review. No one at KTVU, including news director Amber Eikel, would speak on the record. Frank Somerville finally returns to KTVU: Are viewers owed an explanation? Somervilles next hearing will take place May 6. I helped make Mornings on 2 the No. On March 19, 1958, Frank Somerville was born in San Luis Obispo, California, US. MSNBC host Joy Reid criticized her own industry on her prime-time program, calling the Petito coverage an example of missing White woman syndrome, a term coined by the late PBS anchor Gwen Ifill to describe the medias often lopsided focus on white women and girls when they go missing. Somerville, a white male, is being lionized and becoming the topic of the story and not the women who have been ignored, Reynolds said. 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. They had told me long before that.. He is due to appear Feb. 28. Get Morning Report and other email newsletters. Related Articles He has worked as an online coordinator and, before that, a copy editor and page designer for Bay Area-based newspapers and magazines. 2. What Somerville did that was so wrong is less clear. Somerville displayed symptoms of driving under the influence of alcohol, with bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from his person. After a field sobriety test showed signs of impairment, the documents said, two separate breathalyzer tests found that Somerville had blood alcohol levels of 0.239% and 0.219%. In interviews this week, Somerville declined to say anything more about his departure from KTVU, his arrest or his plans. 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Before moving to Frank's current city of Somerville, MA, Frank lived in Bolton MA.In the past, Frank has also been known as Frank J Bacci. Somerville was off the 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. KTVU News Director Amber Eikel has allegedly taken Somerville off the air until further notice, as Liberman reports. For whatever reason, they decided not to re-sign me.. Staff writers Harry Harris and Rick Hurd contributed to this report. 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. While Somerville was attending San Francisco State University in 1981, he interned at KTVU. I feel great, he said in response. Martha Ross is a Bay Area News Group features writer for The Mercury News and East Bay Times who covers everything and anything related to popular culture, society, health, womens issues and families. Somervilles last newscast for KTVU was on Sept. 21. Get Morning Report and other email newsletters. In 2008, he was named co-anchor of the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts, replacing 40-year veteran Dennis Richmond. [7], In June 2021, Somerville took a personal leave of absence from KTVU following an on-air incident during which he struggled to read the script for several stories and appeared to slur his words. Another white person in Pacific Heights has been captured on video being an asshole to a person of color, this time questioning a man who was delivering Narcan to a nearby halfway house. The collision occurred eastbound on West Grand Avenue, Windham wrote. Somerville spoke this morning to local media hound Rich Lieberman who said Somerville was speaking to him exclusively but very quickly Somerville gave quotes to the Mercury News and the Chronicle saying that he's all but certain he won't ever be at the anchor desk again at KTVU. 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. Now, though, Somerville appears to be putting it out there that he's looking for a job. I just dont notice the things you see, he added. [5], In 2013, Somerville apologized on behalf of KTVU for an incident in which racist pilot names were read out in a broadcast on Asiana Airlines Flight 214. He was named as a person of interest in the case, and his remains were found in Florida last week. 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. Somerville was pulled off the air over his coverage of Gabby's case, MSNBC host Joy Reiddiscussed the Gabby Petito case. You can see video of the Sunday 10 o'clock broadcast below, in which Somerville has difficulty reading from his teleprompter. He added that the decision was made long before December, when the alleged DUI took place. Twitter just announced the launch of its Twitter Blue product, a new subscription service with extra perks for avid users that is rolling out today in Australia and Canada ahead of a wider launch. The local Fox affiliate has yet to comment on the incident, and as the Mercury News reported, Somerville has declined to respond to them for comment. He is also survived by many uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews, extended family and friends. Longtime KTVU anchor Frank Somerville shared a Facebook post Saturday reflecting on his arrest and his termination from . Venerated KTVU anchor Frank Somerville, days after an odd Sunday broadcast in which he can be seen on-air slurring his speech while reading a teleprompter, will be on indefinite leave starting . Somervilles Bay Area roots helped make him popular with viewers. Somerville pushed back, but was overruled, a newsroom source said. 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. These rallies were followed by the City of San Leandro issuing an official proclamation honoring Somerville "for speaking out about missing women of color and setting an example of strength and equity to our community and those worldwide.". 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.. Jay C. Barmann is a fiction writer and web editor who's lived in San Francisco for 20+ years. 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. [8] He returned to the anchor chair on August 4 without addressing the incident that saw his brief departure. That night he pushed to add a brief commentary on racial inequity to the end of a news update about the disappearance of Petito, a young White woman and social media influencer whose case had attracted a firestorm of media coverage. 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. Former SF anchor Frank Somerville publicly opens up about arrest, KTVU exit. His parents raised him in Berkeley, California. George Kelly is a breaking news reporter for the Bay Area News Group's East Bay Times and Mercury News. Ive given my heart and soul to Channel 2, he told the Bay Area News Group. Write by: . 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 . Reid hosted a discussion with representatives from the Black and Missing Foundation andNot Our Native Daughters Foundation when she made the comments. Last week, the City of San Leandro also issued an official proclamation honoring the multiple Emmy-winning anchor for speaking out about missing women of color and setting an example of strength and equity to our community and those worldwide.. 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. Ive given my heart and soul to Channel 2. 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I also helped make the noon and 5 p.m. newscasts No. The veteran anchor was told that the tagline was inappropriate and he apparently pushed back on it. Silence irks activists, stirs questions about suspension. So I am done at Channel 2, Somerville said in a brief phone interview this week with the Bay Area News Group. Earlier this year, Somerville disappeared from the air without explanation after a fairly strange Memorial Day Weekend broadcast in which he was slurring words and seemed unable to read the teleprompter. 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. [1] During his three decades at KTVU in Oakland, California, Somerville received three Emmy Awards, including one for best on-camera news anchor. 3bd. 2. He said the couple spend their "together time" at the gym and that the pair "encourage each otherto keep pushing.".