Emmy-Winning Bay Area News Anchor Arrested: Reports

OAKLAND, CA — Former KTVU anchor Frank Somerville was arrested Monday on suspicion of assaulting his daughter, according to police and numerous reports. This marks the fourth time in five years Somerville has been arrested.

According to the Oakland Police Department, police responded to reports of a physical assault just before 5:45 p.m. Monday on the 1000 block of Arlington Avenue, and an unnamed suspect was taken into custody. Inmate records from Santa Rita Jail show that Somerville was taken into custody but released on bail, which Somerville corroborated in an interview with the Bay Area News Group.

Somerville addressed the incident in a Facebook post that had been deleted as of Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday morning, he posted a photo of himself with a bloodied face, and blamed his daughter for the confrontation. He claimed that she came to his home uninvited, resulting in a physical fight after she “refused to leave.”

Somerville said that he went to his ex-wife’s home, where Callie lives, and by the time he got there, his daughter had called the police.

“I love my daughter more than anything in the world,” he wrote. “I would never deliberately try to hurt her. But bad things happen in battle. I can only hope my daughter gets treatment.”

On Wednesday morning, Somerville posted on Facebook that “I PRAY that my daughter goes into treatment. I’ll leave it at that.”

In his Tuesday post, he noted that he was nine months sober.

His attorneys have not responded to requests for comment.

Somerville, 67, spent three decades as an anchor for KTVU, and was eventually named co-anchor of the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts. He received three Emmy Awards during his tenure, including best on-camera news anchor. In June 2021, he took a leave of absence from KTVU following an incident in which he appeared dazed and slurred his words on-air, which he later said was due to taking Ambien accidentally.

Following his departure in September 2021, Somerville faced a string of legal troubles. In December 2021, he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, resulting in a car crash in downtown Oakland. In June 2023, he was arrested twice in one night. He allegedly got into a fight with his brother in Berkeley, and was taken to jail for several hours. After he returned, he was arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated, a violation of his parole agreement resulting from the 2021 incident.

He took a plea deal and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

In December 2023, he admitted to being an alcoholic in an interview with KRON4, and said he had started attending five AA meetings per week.

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