http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/iteam&id=5956230SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The ABC7 I-Team has the inside story of what lead up to the arrest of popular talk-radio host, Bernie Ward, on federal child pornography charges. It's an investigation you'll see Only On 7. We warn you that some of the information is graphic.
Bernie Ward got indicted in December and got fired from his job at KGO Radio, effective at the end of last year. Now, police reports just obtained by the I-Team tell us who blew the whistle on Ward, and how he came to send the woman child porn, by his own admission.
The case against Bernie Ward began with a phone call to the Oakdale Police Department, just outside Modesto.
"We received a report from a local resident of Oakdale that she had gotten an e-mail message and pornographic material involving juveniles," says Chief Marty West with the Oakdale Police Department.
The woman gave police the photographs and a transcript of her online conversation with Bernie Ward.
It's Christmas week, three years ago. Ward's on his home computer using the screen name "Vincentlio." He begins the chat with "Good afternoon, mistress." The woman using the name "Sexfairy" answers, "How was your day, slave?" In explicit detail, Ward describes being humiliated sexually. At one point, he asks, "Are you going to make me feel dirty, mistress?" "Sexfairy" answers, "Yes, I am."
Ward discusses group sex he had at an infamous porn theater in San Mateo. Then, nearly an hour into the conversation, he brings up photographs, "I love trading pictures." "Sexfairy" answers, "and why haven't I gotten any pics, slave? Send me some."
Ward sends several pictures -- one of a woman and two children. Ward describes her as a mother in her late thirties, she's topless. He says the naked boy is 14, that the girl wearing clothes is 12. They're all touching in a sexual way.
"Sexfairy" writes, "brb," (be right back). A half hour later, she's on the phone with police, reporting Bernie Ward for child porn. They tell her to keep chatting with Ward.
"It would be important to the case to gather as much information as possible in support of bringing charges against the person that's sending these pornographic messages," says Chief West.
In the days that follow, "Sexfairy" asks Ward for more pictures -- he complies. Then, police get a search warrant for Ward's AOL account. E-mail sent and received by "Vincentlio" had pictures attached.
An investigator writes, "several of the photographs depicted children engaged in or simulating sexual acts with adults or other children."
The ages of the children in the pictures -- four to 17 years old. "Bernie is an upstanding pillar of the community," says Jeannette Boudreau, Ward's civil attorney.
Ward's criminal defense and civil attorneys declined to be interviewed on camera Wednesday. However, they repeated what they've said from the beginning -- that Ward was doing research for a book...
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