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UH professor arrested on child porn charges

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  • COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII

    The FBI said Beei Huan Chao, 61, was arrested without incident and faces maximum sentences of 20 years imprisonment for each violation.

A University of Hawaii engineering professor was arrested this afternoon for possession and distribution of child pornography.

The FBI said Beei Huan Chao, 61, was arrested without incident and faces maximum sentences of 20 years imprisonment for each violation.

Chao is listed in the university’s directory as a professor of mechanical engineering at UH Manoa. His faculty website says he earned his doctorate from Northwestern University in 1987 and that in 2002 he received the UH Board of Regents’ medal for excellence in teaching.

University spokesman Dan Meisenzahl confirmed that Chao works at UH and said that the university is cooperating with authorities.

No charges had been filed in federal court as of this afternoon.

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    • Highly educated means nothing. If he were robbing a pawn shop I could see your point but this kind of crime has nothing to do with education or economic status. Highly educated just means he should have been better at not getting caught.

  • Would be nice to know exactly what he is being accused of. I mean “possession and distribution of child pornography.” doesn’t really say much. Was he selling pictures of naked children in class? Was he involved in the actual production of Child porn? Wonder how big a problem this is at the UH. School sure has changed since I was there.

    • I’d bet this kind of thing was going on when you were there. There have always been people like this. Sure their methods may have changed, maybe there wasn’t the internet when you were there, but people like this are always there.

  • VILE ANIMAL!!!! If he’s convicted this squirt needs to pay dearly. Life in prison where he’ll be surrounded by grown men. Let’s see if he can act out his fantasies then.

  • I dunno, I’m just saying, that a sleazy creep approached us a while back selling his service. What was it? Planting child porn on an enemy’s hard drive.

  • Theres just something so unbelievable about this story. Its a heinous crime but this guy must be extremely computer savvy and to risk everything and get caught like this just seems extraordinarily reckless and stupid. If he is guilty he deserves the awfulness that awaits him but if he was somehow a victim of some kind of internet scam or phishing he’ll probably remain entangled with the crime he’s been accused of since it seems he’s already seen as guilty because of this example of sensationalist “journalism.”

  • There is just something about Hawaii that turns peoples’ minds to sex and sex! And really I’m sorry to sound racist, particularly as many among our commenting community are Chinese, but it seems to affect PRC folks the most! Maybe sudden lack of restrictions and an anything goes attitude! But the question is WHO was buying from him? In a community where mother’s take lovers to sleep in their husbands’ beds in front of 5 year olds and are considered good morhers, what do you expect? Instead of calling him a monster, let’s consider what permissiveness we’ve created! Wasn’t there a math professor before this abusing little neighborhood girls? UH needs to be smudged and its energy cleaned up! But have you seen how the students dress to class? How they come on to faculty? Sorry to sound like Trump and blaming the victim, but we really need to look at the culture we have created!

    • You’re just so wrong on so many levels I’m guessing you form all your opinions from the first 2 minutes of the evening news. Your ignorance is scary. In your case it’s better to stay silent and let others guess your intelligence level rather than say something and remove all doubt. BTW I used to live in China so don’t say I don’t know anything about Chinese people.

  • So he may get 20 years for each violation which he deserves for child pornography while on the other hand the guy who was speeding at 80 mph and on his phone slams into a cop and kills him gets only 1 year. Wow, smh!

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