Newscaster Arrested on Allegation of Molestation

A veteran KNX-AM news reporter and anchorman was arrested in the middle of his nightly newscast on suspicion of molesting a 13-year-old girl, Simi Valley police said Thursday.

Simi Valley police detectives arrived at the Hollywood radio station about 8 p.m. Wednesday to arrest reporter Bruce Bernhart, but at the request of station officials, waited until another KNX reporter was found to fill in for the remainder of the newscaster’s on-air shift, said Simi Valley Police Lt. Bob Klamser.

KNX News Director Bob Sims asked detectives to wait until the end of Bernhart’s shift before arresting him, but officers refused to wait for fear that he could somehow elude arrest, Klamser said.

Bernhart, 39, was arrested about 30 minutes after he was replaced on the air by fellow KNX reporter Andrew Amador, Klamser said.

When Bernhart walked out of the booth, Simi Valley detectives--accompanied by two Los Angeles Police Department officers--arrested him.

“There was no resistance, no scuffling, no arguing, no shouting, nothing like that,” Klamser said. “We felt the station was very cooperative with us and our guys bent over backwards to minimize the disruption of an obviously disrupting situation for the station.”

A Simi Valley resident, Bernhart was released on his own recognizance Thursday afternoon after being booked in connection with the alleged molestation of a 13-year-old girl who came to his house on Wednesday to interview for a baby-sitting position, Klamser said.

According to the police lieutenant, the unnamed girl had been sent to Bernhart’s house by a youth employment service program. She was applying for a job as baby-sitter for Bernhart’s two children, Klamser said.

When the girl arrived, Klamser said, Bernhart allegedly told her he wanted her to participate in a game. He then allegedly blindfolded the girl and engaged in sexual touching, Klamser said. After the girl stopped playing the “game,” Klamser said, she went home and told her parents about the incident. She and her parents then filed a report with Simi Valley police.

Klamser said the girl was not injured or detained against her will.

KNX has not decided what action, if any, it might take with Bernhart, who has worked at the station for 10 years, said Sims.