Former anchor Somerville arrested twice after altercation with brother

Former KTVU anchor Frank Somerville, who has spoken about his struggles with addiction in 2022, was arrested twice after domestic incidents, authorities said.

Former Bay Area news anchor Frank Somerville, a once-ubiquitous media figure who has spoken out about his struggles with addiction, was arrested twice on Monday night and Tuesday morning, following two domestic incidents with his family.

The first arrest occurred shortly after 6:30 p.m. on Monday, when Somerville allegedly showed up intoxicated to his brother's home on the 800 block of Indian Rock Avenue, to confront family members about "ongoing family issues," Berkeley police said. Family members asked Somerville to leave but he refused and made threats, leading to a violent altercation that left a victim with a bruise on his right cheek.

When police arrived at 6:36 p.m. Somerville's brother, Mark Somerville, was restraining the 65-year-old former KTVU journalist, who was briefly held in Berkeley city jail on misdemeanor charges of public intoxication, assault, making criminal threats and violating probation. He does not live at the home on Indian Rock Avenue, which belongs to a family member, property records show. Reached by phone, Somerville's father declined to comment Monday night.

Hours later, Somerville returned to his family's home, evidently to retrieve his car after police released him from jail. He then left the area and came back shortly before 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, at which point police say he began incessantly ringing the doorbell in an effort to get some possessions he had lost. A resident called police, who arrived to find Somerville sitting in his car, apparently under the influence of substances. Officers said they witnessed him driving while drunk and arrested him again for violating his probation.

Somerville was booked into Santa Rita Jail, where he is being held on $10,000 bail. He is set to appear in court Thursday morning.

A staple in television news since he joined KTVU in 1991, Somerville was suspended in 2021 after he tried to add commentary about racial justice to a news story about the Gabrielle "Gabby" Petito homicide case, defying a decision by supervisors not to include his remarks in the broadcast script. Although the station did not renew his contract in January 2022, Somerville remained in the spotlight, speaking publicly about grappling with substance abuse and mental health issues.

In December 2021, Somerville plowed his Porsche through a busy Oakland intersection while drunk, rear-ending another car and then pushing it across the street with such force that its wheels came off the ground. The driver of the other car — an Audi S4 — described his bafflement in an interview with The Chronicle the day after the collision. He said he had put his car in park and tried to get Somerville's attention as Somerville floored the accelerator.

Court charging documents showed Somerville's blood alcohol concentration was .24% — three times the legal limit. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor drunken driving count in April 2022, receiving a 30-day sentence in county jail that he served through a sheriff's alternative work program that required him to wash police cars.

Since leaving television, Somerville has granted several interviews and kept the public in his thrall. During an interview with The Chronicle in March, he said he may pursue a teaching job at a firm that trains people to work in media. He consistently has said he does not believe he will return to KTVU, though he is open to reviving his career on the air if a station will hire him.

"I come with a background," Somerville said in March. "I made a huge mistake."

He was not available to comment Monday night.

Reach Rachel Swan: [email protected]