UT-Austin Professor Charged With Child Pornography Possession

AUSTIN, TX — A University of Texas at Austin professor this week was charged with five counts of child pornography possession, according to a report.

Mario Villarreal, 49, of Round Rock, was arrested after investigators said he was exchanging child porn photos and videos to a woman in Tennessee, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

Villarreal is managing director at the Salem Center for Policy for the McComb’s School of Business at UT-Austin, as shown on his social media pages an the university website.

According to the Statesman report, a woman who told detectives she operated an online/phone sex business said Villarreal had sent her child pornography and bought material from her withing the past five years. According to an arrest affidavit referenced by the Statesman, investigators found a chat on her phone during which Villarreal discussed molesting a three-year-old girl.

If convicted, Villarreal faces a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. He was released from the Williamson County Jail on Monday after posting bail set at $250,000, according to records.

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