Updated, 11:30 p.m. PDT.
LOS ANGELES — A former professor of anthropology, history and gender studies at the University of Southern California (USC) was captured in Mexico Tuesday evening after being placed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list of fugitives.
Walter Lee Williams Ph.D., the founding editor of the International Gay and Lesbian Review, was arrested on charges of engaging in sexual conduct with minors and for producing child pornography.
At a press conference Monday, Bill L. Lewis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Division, said Williams was wanted “for sexual exploitation of children, travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places and criminal forfeiture.”
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“The allegations Williams faces are serious, and we hope to catch him quickly before more children are abused,” said Lewis.
A four-count federal warrant was issued for Williams on April 30, and a seven-page indictment unsealed on June 14, in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleges that “Williams traveled from Los Angeles to the Philippines in January 2011 to engage in sex acts with two 14-year-old boys he met online in 2010.”
The indictment also alleges that prior to his travel, Williams engaged in sexual activity via internet webcam sessions with the boys, and expressed a desire to visit them in the Philippines to have sex.
“While in the Philippines, he allegedly engaged in sex acts with both boys and produced sexually explicit photos of one of the boys,” according to the indictment.
Williams reportedly fled the Los Angeles area approximately one week after returning from the Philippines.
Williams has published nine books and well over a hundred articles in professional journals, magazines, edited books, and encyclopedias, mainly on topics relating to sexuality, gender, and HIV prevention.
He was the 500th person to be placed on the FBI’s famed “most wanted” list.
