May 11, 2005
Miami weatherman-child molestor Kamal faults others for troubles
Former Miami TV weathercaster Bill Kamal, convicted earlier this year of child molestation after being nabbed in an FBI sting, gave a jailhosue interview to Miami television station WPLG-TV/DT, which is being aired this week. Kamal refused to accept blame for the arrest, and though he pled guilty to charges of child molestation, blamed others -- particularly an AOL chatroom called "Dads & Sons" -- for his troubles.
"(The Web site) was dads and sons, or sons and dads, and I said, 'Well this is an odd chatroom.' I mean if I were a child molester, if I were a sexual predator, how do you become one at 48 years old? As I was driving up (to Fort Pierce), I thought, 'Could this be a trap? Could this be that?'"The interview is being carried in multiple parts on WPLG-TV and their web site (what do you expect? it is May sweeps after all).
Kamal, formerly with Miami's WSVN-TV and Washington's WUSA-TV, is serving a five-year sentence in the federal medical center in Deven, MA. His story has been all over the media: Veteran TV weatherman goes on the internet and chats up what he thinks is a fourteen year-old boy (though in part two of the interview series, Kamal insists that he thought the "teen" was an adult playing the part of a teenager, and that he didn't do anything wrong), and sets up a meeting in Ft. Pierce, FL. When he arrives, he is nabbed by an FBI team who has set Kamal up.
Is five years enough time for someone like that? Even if you do believe his story, you have to admit that he belongs in jail. But is that long enough? What about after he gets out? Stick a "lojack" on him the rest of his life? Chemically castrate him? How else do we protect our youngsters?
Time will tell.
(Kamal interview Part I / Part II / Part III / Part IV)