UCLA classics Professor Andrew Dyck was arrested Thursday for
allegedly sending pornographic material to a 13-year-old Simi
Valley girl over the Internet.
Police said after 56-year-old Dyck was informed of his case by
the Simi Valley police department, he reported to the police
station.
Dyck was later taken from the police department to the Ventura
County Main Jail where he was released on a $10,000 bail, police
said.
According to a Simi Valley Police press release, Dyck is charged
with four felony counts of sending harmful material to a minor, and
if convicted, he faces up to four years in prison.
Police said Dyck is expected to appear in the Ventura County
Superior Court next Thursday.
Dyck did not answer numerous phone calls to his office Friday
and Sunday. And he was not in his office Friday afternoon.
The investigation of Dyck’s case began in December 2002,
when the alleged victim’s parents complained to the Simi
Valley police about explicit material that their daughter had been
receiving through e-mail, police said.
During the next four months, Police Detective David Del Marto
said he posed as the alleged victim and continued to communicate
with the suspect.
Del Marto said he continued to receive pornographic images from
the suspect, and with the help of the Southern California High Tech
Task Force, a government agency dealing with legal problems
occurring on the Internet, investigators traced the e-mails back to
a UCLA computer.
According to the Simi Valley police, after the owner of the
computer was identified, a search warrant for the machine was
released in July.
Dyck’s computer was seized the same month as a result, and
investigators said they were able to retrieve pornographic images
and related e-mails from it. The images corresponded with the ones
received by the alleged victim, police said.
According to a story published on Oct. 3 in the Ventura County
Star, Dyck met the alleged victim while chatting online on a
non-pornographic Web site.
The Star also stated that though there was no evidence of any
other alleged victims, authorities had not stopped investigating
the case.
This quarter, Dyck is teaching Classics 160, a course titled
Legal Advocacy in Ancient World. There are 41 students enrolled in
that class, which meets Tuesdays and Thursdays.
According to the classics department, as of Friday, the
department has not yet decided whether Dyck would continue teaching
the course.
During his time at UCLA, Dyck has taught classics courses and
has received high numbers in reviews from students on
bruinwalk.com, which gives students a chance to rate their
professors on a number scale based on effectiveness and
availability.
Out of 33 reviews submitted, Dyck has received a 7.7 overall
rating on a scale of one to 10.
Dyck graduated with a doctorate from the University of Chicago
in 1975 and was a visiting professor at UCLA during the 1976-77
school year. He returned a year later, and has been teaching at
UCLA ever since.
Dyck also held the position of classics department chair from
1988-1991.