KTVU’s Frank Somerville faces 2 DUI charges after car crash

The collision took location around the intersection of Grand Avenue and Broadway Street just following 7:45 p.m. Dec. 31, 2021, Oakland police stated at the time. Somerville, driving a 2014 Porsche 911, rear-finished a silver Audi. The driver of the Audi stepped out in advance of Somerville pushed the car across the intersection with his automobile just before ramming it into a light-weight pole, according to files supplied to SFGATE by the district attorney’s business.

Somerville shown indications of driving underneath the affect of alcoholic beverages, with bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and “odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from his person.” Right after a field sobriety check showed signals of “impairment,” the paperwork explained, two different breathalyzer exams observed that Somerville experienced blood alcoholic beverages amounts of .239% and .219%.

Somerville was hospitalized soon just after the incident and was booked at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

The longtime information anchor faced a rocky 2021. In a May broadcast of KTVU’s 10 p.m. news plan, Somerville was recorded slurring his terms — and abruptly left midbroadcast with no rationalization. A KTVU spokesperson later discussed that he left the air to “focus on his wellbeing.”

He returned in August, but a month immediately after, was suspended permanently pursuing turmoil around the coverage of Gabby Petito, the lacking van-lifer who was killed by her fiance Brian Laundrie in September. 

Somerville has a Black daughter and needed to increase a notice at the finish of any news tale on Petito about the charges of domestic violence for Black ladies in The us. The request was denied by KTVU information director Amber Eikel, who named the tagline inappropriate, a resource instructed SFGATE in September, leading to criticism from the Oakland chapter of the NAACP.

Since his departure from KTVU, he has steadily posted films on Instagram showcasing an assortment of commentary. His very last video was released March 31, voicing his point of view on the Will Smith slap at the Oscars and recounting an incident in which his wife’s boss continuously harassed her. “When I noticed Will Smith stand up for his wife, it reminded me of what I did not do 30 many years ago,” he states in the movie.

Somerville’s next listening to will just take put Could 6. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Business office did not right away respond to a request for comment from SFGATE.