Professor arrested on suspicion of soliciting a minor online
USU professor Tilak Dhiman, associate professor in the department of animal, dairy and veterinary sciences, was arrested Thursday on federal charges of coercion and enticement of a minor for illegal sexual activity over the Internet.
Dhiman, 49, was booked into the Weber County Jail on the charges stemming from more than two months of online chats with Roy law enforcement, who posed as a 13-year-old girl.
Roy officer Matthew Gwynn, with the Northern Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, said Dhiman contacted undercover officers in a Yahoo! chatroom in January using the screen name “Lucky sharma.” After his arrest, Dhiman admitted to using that screen name in conversations with the undercover officer, according to court records from USA v. Dhiman.
John DeVilbiss, executive director of USU Public Relations and Marketing, said the university is considering what action they will take. He said Dhiman will remain a professor for now, but they are deciding between several options such as leave with or without pay.
“This is a serious charge and we’re very concerned,” DeVilbiss said. “It’s a delicate situation because we don’t want to get ahead of the legal system. We want to give him due process but not undermine the seriousness of the situation.”
There have been no complaints at USU similar to the charges against Dhiman, DeVilbiss said.
Dhiman has been at USU since 1996 when he came to Logan from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Dhiman made his first appearance in the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City on Friday. He is scheduled to be arraigned on March 22 at 1:30 p.m.
According to official court documents, Dhiman had several conversations with the undercover officer who pretended to be a girl two weeks away from her 14th birthday. Dhiman reportedly told the “girl” he was 20 years old and from Logan. He later told her his name was Timothy Johnson and that he was 27 years old.
During conversations with the “girl” he “described having sexual intercourse with the undercover persona” and “indicated he wanted to meet the undercover persona, but only when she was ‘comfortable’ with him,” court documents state.
Dhiman tried to get directions to her house, saying meeting in a hotel would be “‘dangerous’ because she was only 14 years old,” according to court records. During a chat on March 10, he asked if her bed was large enough for the two of them and described what he would like to do sexually with the girl.
On March 12, Dhiman made arrangements to meet the girl in Roy.
Three days later, he drove to Roy where police saw a brown Toyota Camry with license plates registered in Logan circling the designated meeting place. When he parked the car, Dhiman reportedly went to the home with flowers in hand and a condom and a Dr Pepper in his pocket.
Police then arrested him and Dhiman waived his Miranda rights.
According to court documents, Dhiman admitted to using both his home and a USU computer to chat with the undercover officer. He said he knew the girl was 14 years old but denied he would have had any sexual activity with her.
U.S. District Court Judge Paul M. Warner ordered Dhiman to hire an attorney and ordered that he remain in federal custody.
DeVilbiss said the only class Dhiman was teaching this semester, ADVS 3510 Applied Animal Nutrition, will be taken over by a professor from the department who has taught the course before.