OAKLAND — Former KTVU news anchor Frank Somerville was arrested Monday evening and remained in custody early Tuesday at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, jail records showed.
Details of the arrest were not available immediately. Jail records said he was arrested on suspicion of battery with serious bodily injury. The county’s online inmate locator showed him in custody Tuesday morning, but by 10 a.m., the record changed, suggesting that he had made bail and was no longer in the jail.
Jail records showed the arrest happened at 6:53 p.m. and indicated that Somerville was arrested in Oakland. Officials with the Oakland Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for more information about the arrest.
The incident marks the latest in a string of troubles for Somerville, who replaced 40-year-old Dennis Richmond when he was named co-anchor of the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts in 2008.
In June 2023, Somerville was arrested twice in a nine-hour period after multiple confrontations with family members at a residence in Berkeley. Officials said they suspected he was intoxicated in both of those incidents.
He pleaded no contest to alcohol-related reckless driving in a plea deal that dismisses most of the charges he racked up during disputes with family members last year, court records show.
In December 2021, he had been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in Oakland following a crash. His blood alcohol level was .24, or three times the legal limit, court documents showed. Somerville pleaded no contest to the DUI charge in August 2022 and was ordered to attend DUI classes and given three years probation, ending in 2025.
KTVU suspended him twice in 2021, once for slurring and stumbling over his words in a newscast. The station let his contract expire in January 2022, ending his 31-year affiliation with the station.
Since then, Somerville has been open about his battle with alcohol and his efforts to stay sober, posting often on social media about his time in a rehabilitation center.