Former news anchors caught in strange sex scandal
Pictured: Kent Ninomiya and Emily Carlson from the WICD-TV website.
When you watch the news, you probably think of the person on the air as a well respected public figure, right? As someone who has worked in a television news room, I can tell you that the person reading the news can be one of the skeeviest people in the world! This may be a case of just that... low down news anchors.
Two former Illinois news personalities, Kent Ninomiya and Emily Carlson have found themselves involved in a strange sex scandal.
One of their former interns at WICD-TV in central Illinois is on trial for drinking and driving, but the intern Erin Davis says she was trying to flee from Ninomiya and Carlson who had evidently gotten her drunk for a big ole threesome.
During the case, Ninomiya testified that he thought he was coming by Carlson's apartment so that he could take the two women out to eat. Davis testified that Carlson wanted both of them to have sex with Ninomiya. Davis testified that she was served lots of Vodka by Carlson, who did not testify.
According to Ninomiya's anchor profile on WICD-TV's website, he is an award-winning journalist who has worked in some of the most competitive major markets in the country including...
Before joining News Channel 15, Kent most recently was the 5, 6, and 10-PM Anchor at KSTP (ABC) Minneapolis/St. Paul. In addition, Kent was an anchor and reporter at KCOP/KTTV (UPN/FOX) Los Angeles, KGO (ABC) San Francisco, WLS (ABC) Chicago, KGTV (ABC) San Diego, KFSN (ABC) Fresno, KJEO (CBS) Fresno, KIEM (NBC) Eureka, California and WGGB (ABC) Springfield, Massachusetts. He also worked in CNN's Washington DC bureau.
Kent Ninomiya was hired as the Primary Anchor and Managing Editor at NewsChannel 15 in April of 2006 after an extensive nationwide search.
The station's website lists Emily Carlson as a reporter who grew up in Edina, Minnesota and holds degrees in Broadcast Journalism and English from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.
She got her first taste of reporting when she interned at KSTP in Minneapolis. She interviewed Minnesota’s top leaders at the capitol and helped bring stories that mattered the most to viewers in the consumer unit. After studying international communications and politics in London, Emily hopes to one day report from all corners of the globe.
Emily is an accomplished figure skater, earning two gold medals. When she’s not at work she enjoys reading, being out in the sun, planning her next trip, working out, or talking to her family.
I think they forgot to mention that she is kinky in the bedroom too!
Ninomiya and Carlson are not charged in the case. Davis, 19, was acquitted of the charges. Both news reporters were fired weeks before this trial started.
Comments
The freaks come out at night.
Posted by: todd | September 17, 2007 6:00 PM
I went to school with Emily Carlson, total whore.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 17, 2007 6:06 PM
What year did she graduate I think I remember at a few parties.... :)
Posted by: danny | September 19, 2007 11:26 AM
How would you all know... your all gay
Posted by: Anonymous | September 19, 2007 4:14 PM
BEFORE YOU ALL RUSH TO JUDGEMENT YOU SHOULD REALIZE THAT THIS WOMAN WAS ON TRIAL NOT KENT NINOMIYA or EMILY CARLSON. She can say anything she wants in her defense but that doesn't make it true. The state's attorney decided to prosecute this woman. Ninomiya and Carlson were NOT charged with any crime. What does that tell you? Here is an article from the Star Tribune with the other side.
C.J.: News alert: Ex-KSTPers tell their side of Champaign story
C.J., Star Tribune
Kent Ninomiya had a lot to say about last week's column regarding an Illinois college student who testified that she drove drunk only because she was fleeing what she feared would be a potential sexual assault by him and Emily Carlson.
Ninomiya and Carlson, former KSTPers, were an anchor and a reporter, respectively, at WICD-TV in Champaign, Ill., on Sept. 17, 2006, when Erin Davis, then 18, had her run-in with two parked cars and then the law.
Davis, who had a blood-alcohol content of 0.20, was acquitted of drunken driving; her defense was that she drove intoxicated out of a necessity to escape greater injury. According to Davis' testimony, she was served vodka by Carlson at Carlson's apartment. N! inomiya testified that he was at the apartment to take the women out to eat.
In court, Davis was described as an intern. Tim Mathis, GM of WICS and WICD, said Friday: "Erin Davis was an employee, not an intern. She was a member of the operations department at WICD."
Ninomiya was the first source to correct me about Davis' job description.
"I would like to bring your attention to the facts in this case," Ninomiya wrote in an e-mail. (The broadcast journalist refused my request for a telephone interview.) "Both me and Emily Carlson were subpoenaed as witnesses for the prosecution. Don't you think the state's attorney would have loved to come after an anchor and reporter if there was any wrongdoing? Her story was her attempt to avoid taking responsibility for her actions.
"I never touched her, was never alone with her and never drank with her. In fact, I do not drink at all," Ninomiya wrote.
Neither Carlson, who did not tes! tify, nor Ninomiya, who did testify, was charged with any crim! e regard ing Davis.
Via e-mail Saturday, Carlson wrote that Davis' defense was a fabrication. "Clearly the state attorney's office found me to be the credible witness, not Erin Davis," Carlson wrote. "It is important to note that the judge was 'skeptical' of Davis' testimony, but 'reluctantly' allowed it."
In the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, reporter Mary Schenk, who covered the trial from gavel to gavel, noted that Judge Richard Klaus allowed the jury to consider Davis' unusual defense because the college student's attorney presented sufficient evidence to support the claim.
Carlson wanted me to stress that her "reasons for leaving WICD are completely unrelated to the [Davis] case. I left voluntarily because of contract issues."
While pleased to hear from Ninomiya and Carlson, I'm left with a lot of questions.
Speaking up for the two
Twin Cities media types were just plain shocked about Ninomiya's association with! the case heard by a Champaign County jury.
Vineeta Sawkar, now a morning and midday anchor at KSTP-TV, sat near Ninomiya when he worked here.
"If that is true, I don't know that side of him," Sawkar said last week. "I was friends with him when he was here. I went to an apple-picking farm with he and his wife and their kids, and I took my kids. I've been to his house before; he and my husband and I and our kids went to his son's birthday party. We got along well. It's all just so stunning."
Joe Aronson, who identified himself in an interview as a high school friend of Carlson's, wrote a long, passionate e-mail defending her.
"I have had the pleasure of knowing Emily Carlson for about eight years," Aronson wrote. "It has been my honor to count her as one of my friends. She is one of the finest people I know, an ear that is always there to listen. The things this young woman said Emily did are completely out of charact! er and never in a million years would I believe they are true.! "
E-mail from Davis
After several phone calls to an Illinois telephone number where I believed Davis could be reached, I received an e-mail from her late Thursday.
"Sorry I didn't call you back before," she wrote. "I thought that the only information that you were seeking to get regarded the civil suit, and you had already published your story on the 17th, and I didn't get the message until the 18th."
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How can you feel good about yourself Mr.Winters, writing completely untrue BS?
You have obviously not done your homework, so you have fun fucking with other peoples life because your own is so boring. What a mean spirited post....glad I don't have your Karma!
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