Ex-announcer Gamere faces charges of child pornography

Robert Gamere, the veteran sportscaster who hosted the local TV show "Candlepins for Cash" through most of the 1970s, was arrested yesterday on federal charges of transporting and possessing child pornography.

Several hours later, in a firm voice, the 69-year-old Brookline resident pleaded not guilty in US District Court in Boston to a three-count indictment of distributing child pornography over the Internet on two separate dates last year and of possessing child pornography on his home computer. The indictment was unsealed yesterday.

Federal agents who executed a search warrant last November at the apartment where Gamere lives with his wife also found printed images of child pornography in a locked bedroom drawer, according to the office of US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan.

"Yes, yes," Gamere said when US Magistrate Judge Leo T. Sorokin asked him whether he understood his right to remain silent. Gamere, a trim man with shaggy white hair who broadcast professional baseball, college sports, and horse races in a career that spanned three decades, said little else during the 45-minute hearing. His wife, Dianne, sat near the front of the spectators' gallery.

Later, Terry Ann Knopf, a journalism lecturer at Boston University who got to know Gamere as a television critic for The Patriot Ledger and contributing writer for Boston magazine, said the arrest marked the latest tragic chapter in a troubled life.

Gamere was a skilled and likable broadcaster whose personal demons led to erratic behavior and caused him to bounce from one media outlet to the next, often after being fired, she said.

"It's kind of a sad story of somebody who was very talented and had an unfortunate knack for throwing it all away," she said.

Sorokin released Gamere on a $100,000 bond but ordered him to stay in his apartment and wear an electronic-monitoring bracelet. Gamere can leave home to see his lawyer and go to medical appointments but must stay away from children. He is not allowed to even answer the door to trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

Assistant US Attorney Dana Gershengorn said Gamere came to the attention of authorities in March 2007 when he contacted an undercover FBI investigator in an online chat room and e-mailed a video of child pornography.

Investigators determined that Gamere had used a screen name, GreatGamere, to mail the video to himself at least once a month for nine months to prevent AOL from deleting it from his e-mail account, Gershengorn said.

The FBI then determined that the screen name GreatGamere had come up in several other undercover investigations, according to an affidavit made public yesterday.

It took nearly a year after the search warrant was executed for authorities to arrest Gamere, in part because they needed to analyze forensic evidence, said a spokeswoman for Sullivan.

Gershengorn unsuccessfully urged Sorokin to detain Gamere until his trial, saying he might try to flee. She said that the government's case against him was "very strong" and that Gamere would face five to 20 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.

The pornographic images seized by federal agents, she added, were "extremely, extremely disturbing and involved very young children."

She cited other risk factors for the defendant, including a drinking problem and a record of several arrests for driving while intoxicated.

She also said Gamere was a potential suicide risk.

But Gamere's lawyer, William H. Kettlewell, said his client has known that he might be arrested since the search of his apartment and never fled. He has no driver's license or passport. Apart from three adult children who live in the region and his wife, Gamere has little family except for his 95-year-old mother in New Jersey, the lawyer said.

"He simply has nowhere to go," said Kettlewell. As for the possibility that Gamere might be a suicide risk, the lawyer said, "He's not happy to be here, but he's far from despondent."

Gamere worked as a sportscaster at a number of local TV and radio stations, but he is best-known to many in Boston as the host of "Candlepins for Cash" on Channel 7 from 1973 to 1980.

Afterward, he worked for five years as a sports anchor at WLVI-TV but was fired in 1989 after charges of assault and sexual harassment were brought against him by a Malden man. The charges were later dropped.

In June 1988, he was stabbed four times while walking in Boston's Fenway section in the early morning. He eventually recovered, resumed his work, and competed in the Boston Marathon.

Gamere held numerous other broadcasting jobs, including doing the play-by-play for Harvard football. He had made his television play-by-play debut in 1970 for the New York Yankees on WPIX but was let go after one season and replaced by Bill White.

Gamere told the Globe a year ago that he was semiretired, though he had been doing some announcing at Boston University track meets and was until recently calling horse races at the Brockton Fair.

He said he still got stopped on the street by people who appeared on "Candlepins."

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.