WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR BERNIE WARD
Drop the charges and put Bernie Ward back on the air
The Department of Justice does not dispute Bernie's explanation of how and why he pulled about 30 images of child pornography from various online sources and transmitted one image via e-mail to a person representing herself as an adult woman. The DOJ also says it understands that Bernie, like millions of Americans, was ignorant of the laws that govern Internet child pornography. Essentially, the law states, if you open a file deliberately, you are guilty of a crime.
However, the DOJ does not care about intent or mitigating circumstances anymore than it cares about what kind of man Bernie Ward really is. It is not interested in handing out a punishment that truly fits the crime.
The federal government's investigation of Bernie Ward has lasted three years. It began with the seizure of every computer in his family's home and has now culminated in an indictment on multiple charges of possession and transmission of child pornography. In those three years, in which nothing more than those original images have been discovered, the government has allowed Bernie unfettered access to e-mail and the Internet and to children in his daily work and activities.
Three years. What does that say? If the Justice Department honestly believed it had a child predator on its hands, does anyone doubt that it would have taken decisive steps to remove that person from society?
The United States government knows Bernie Ward is not a child predator or pornographer. It knows that fewer than three dozen images in an e-mail kill file and one e-mailed image do not remotely fit the modus operandi of a pedophile or child pornographer. Nevertheless, the government also knows that the mere accusation of such serious crimes is enough to ruin a person%u2019s professional and social standing and destroy his life forever. It is for this reason that Bernie Ward and his family have chosen to fight the U.S. Attorney's plan to brand him as a child predator, send him to federal prison for five years and consign him for the rest of his life to carry the stigma of a registered sex offender.
Five years or more behind bars, the financial destruction of his family and a reputation than can never be resurrected is neither proportional nor just.
WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR BERNIE WARD
