LOS ANGELES — It was a call from a Mexican citizen who recognized the photo of a former University of Southern California professor on the FBI’s most-wanted list that gave authorities the final tip they needed to bring in a man suspected of sex crimes with children who had slipped through their fingers when he abruptly left town two years ago.
An FBI agent at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City got the tip less than 24 hours after the bureau added Walter Lee Williams, 64, to its well-known Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Since 2011, FBI agents along with the Los Angeles Police Department had worked to build a case against Williams, who had taught history, anthropology and gender studies.
With his face splashed across the pages of local newspapers in touristy Cancun, Williams fell for a ruse constructed by Mexican authorities to lure him to his local cafe in the neighboring Caribbean resort town of Playa del Carmen on Tuesday. That’s where he was arrested while drinking coffee near a park.
Williams was deported Wednesday evening and will face charges in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday of sexual exploitation of children and traveling abroad for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts with children.
A federal indictment accused him of traveling to the Philippines in January 2011 to engage in sex acts with two 14-year-old boys he met online in 2010. A federal arrest warrant was issued for the former Palm Springs, Calif., resident in April.
Authorities say he produced sexually explicit photos of one of the boys, which he brought back to Los Angeles County.
FBI agents are also investigating how he had access to money while in Mexico and whether he was being helped, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.
The investigation started in 2011 after a student at USC notified authorities that Williams may have targeted young boys for sex. Soon the FBI was involved and learned that Williams was returning from a two-week trip to the Philippines; a search warrant was obtained.
Williams was questioned at the airport and two computers and a camera were confiscated by authorities who later allegedly found child pornography and evidence he was engaged in sex acts with young boys, said LAPD Assistant Chief Michel Moore.
In February 2011, about a week after that airport stop, Williams left the country for Mexico — “he dropped his career at USC and went,” Eimiller said. Even with the evidence from the laptops, the case wasn’t strong enough to indict Williams on child sex crime charges.
Agents traveled abroad to find and interview possible victims, witnesses, and their friends and families.
“We believe he was using his position, his credibility as a professor and his ideologies to lure his victims,” said Eimiller said. She said he also paid for sex.
Officials said that during the investigation, agents found evidence that indicates Williams allegedly has at least eight more victims.
“We’re happy this man is off the street (but) we believe there are other victims who have suffered by this man’s actions and we need to talk with them,” said Moore.
USC has fully cooperated with the FBI investigation and no evidence was found during the course of the investigation that shows any alleged illegal activities were associated with the university or took place on campus, authorities and campus officials said.
The tipster who led the FBI to Williams is eligible for a $100,000 reward.