Crime & Courts

UAA professor charged, arrested for alleged child sexual abuse

Anchorage police arrested a University of Alaska Anchorage professor on child sexual abuse charges Wednesday morning, according to a police spokeswoman.

Steven Pyle, 48, faces three counts of sexual abuse of a minor, police spokeswoman Jennifer Castro wrote in a statement Wednesday. According to UAA, Pyle is a term assistant professor in the university's Medical Laboratory Sciences program.

Term professors are hired or rehired on a contract basis and are not on track for tenure, university spokeswoman Kristin DeSmith said. Pyle has worked at UAA since July 2006, DeSmith said.

Pyle is also a foster parent, "having contact with many children," Castro wrote.

Reached by phone just before noon Wednesday, Castro said she did not know where Pyle was arrested or how detectives learned of the alleged abuse.

The detectives say Pyle may have had other victims. Anyone with additional information is asked to call the Anchorage Police Department at 786-8900.

The charges against Pyle come a week after police arrested a former UAA professor, Curtis Osterhoudt, 37, with possession and distribution of child pornography. Osterhoudt worked as an assistant professor of physics and astronomy from Aug. 12, 2012, until resigning Jan. 8, 2014, according to UAA.

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By CASEY GROVE

casey.grove@adn.com

Casey Grove

Casey Grove is a former reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. He left the ADN in 2014.

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