Former University Professor Sentenced to Prison for Engaging in Sexual Conduct with a Minor

A former university professor was sentenced today to five years in prison for traveling in foreign commerce to engage in sexual conduct with a minor, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Walter Lee Williams, 66, of Palm Springs, California, was charged with engaging in sexual conduct with minors in the Philippines, and arrested in Mexico in 2013 after being placed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list.  In connection with his guilty plea, Williams admitted that he traveled from Los Angeles to the Philippines to engage in sex acts with minor boys.  Prior to his travel, Williams engaged in sexual activity via Internet webcam sessions with minors and expressed a desire to visit them in the Philippines to have sex. 

In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez of the Central District of California sentenced Williams to ten years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $25,000 in restitution and to register as a sex offender for life.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, and prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Ravi Sinha and Herbrina Sanders from the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS).

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  For