(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A California professor, who has been cited by CNN, was arrested by federal prosecutors for trying to arrange the rape of a 7-year-old girl in conservations with an undercover agent.
Rodger “Rod” Githens, an associate professor at the University of the Pacific, sought to bribe the little girl with a Hershey chocolate bar and a Disney doll, according to a disturbing criminal complaint, first published by the Daily Beast. Githens and the agent, who pretended to be sexually active with his 7-year-old niece, began the disturbing conversations on a gay dating app called “Grindr” on March 25.
“Honestly I love chatting but would love to have a dad or uncle invite me,” Githens said after taking the gut-wrenching conversation to text messaging app Telegram. In those text messages, Githen admitted being gay but also attracted to babies. “How young you into?” Githens asked the undercover agent in reference to the children’s age he was attracted to. “Young, young. Wbu,” the agent answered, asking Githens’ age preference. “Babies,” the professor answered.
Over the course of the messages, the University of the Pacific professor allegedly admitted to having previously molested his partner’s nephew, an alleged Mexican national, reported the New York Post. “You ever done light touching with any other kids,” Githen asked, later adding “with my husband’s 11 yo nephew I did.” When asked if the 11-year-old boy enjoyed being molested, Githen disturbingly said, “he kept coming to lay with me so I assumed he liked it.”
A search warrant led by the Eastern District of California was executed on April 19, the NYPost reported.
Githens, who has a Bachelor of Science in religious studies, reportedly served as an associate dean for Academic Programs and Innovation and is now the endowed chair for Leadership & Organization, which the Daily Beast reported has campuses in two California cities.
The University of the Pacific told the Daily Beast on Monday that the indicted professor was placed on administrative leave. His official website biography was taken down from the university’s website. An internet archive of the professor’s bio, reviewed by Headline USA, confirmed he was listed as a staffer. “I strive to meet students ‘where they are’,” the indicted professor said, adding that his goal was “to provide individualized attention to students.”
The now-indicted professor was featured in a CNN Business article by Julia Carpenter, who now works at the Wall Street Journal. The article —published on March 5, 2019, and headlined “Employees are tired of their companies paying lip service to diversity. They want real change”— appears to criticize corporations for not “walking the walk” in diversity and not making systematic changes. Githens also claimed to have been cited in HR People + Strategy Blog, Performance Improvement Quarterly, the Sacramento Business Journal and TD Magazine.
In a separate research paper, Githens appeared to call for higher “diversity and incivility.” In the abstract available in ResearchGate and reviewed by Headline USA, the indicted professor said that employees face “incivility” because of “perpetrators’ unconscious prejudice.” “Unconscious bias” is a phrase often used in leftist woke ideology to claim that whites are implicit in racism without even knowing.
Federal prosecutors arrested Githens on April 21 and charged him with receipt and distribution of images of a minor and engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Githens could be sentenced to 20 years in prison if he is found guilty.
