Man, woman charged with sexual assault of her infant
03/26/2010
BALLWIN — The mother of a baby girl from Ballwin and an assistant college professor from California repeatedly performed sex acts with the child when she was as young as five months, officials said Thursday.
Tessa L. Vanvlerah, 20, and Kenneth M. Kyle, 46, are charged with statutory rape, statutory sodomy and promoting child pornography. Vanvlerah also faces an incest charge, and Kyle a federal child pornography charge in California.
They met online, said Sgt. Gary Guinn, commander of St. Louis County police child abuse unit. He said Kyle made about five trips here, and the pair would assault the child at various hotels in the Westport area.
"We were all shocked," Guinn said. "It is very disturbing."
He said, "Physically (the child) is fine and I think she's young enough that she'll never remember this."
Guinn said Vanvlerah, a single mother and student, did not appear to benefit financially, and is cooperating with police. He said the baby's father had signed away his parental rights. The child, now 13 months old, is in state custody.
In 2008, a woman obtained a court order of protection in St. Louis County against Vanvlerah, accusing her of seducing and having sex with the woman's 16-year-old autistic son, court records show. Vanvlerah was also accused of boasting online about becoming pregnant from the union.
Vanvlerah, of the 200 block of Solon Drive in Ballwin, is held in lieu of $2 million cash bail. Kyle, of San Francisco, is held in California.
Officials began tracking Kyle when someone used a computer at his address to send 100 child porn images to an undercover FBI agent on a peer-to-peer file-sharing service, according to an affidavit filed by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Michael Shan.
San Francisco police searched Kyle's home on March 10 and seized computers while he was out of the country.
He was stopped by customs agents March 15, after returning to the U.S. from Germany. Agents found "photographs of infants and toddlers being sexually abused by adults" on his computer, Shan wrote.
On March 19, federal prosecutors charged Kyle with transportation of child pornography, and four days later alerted St. Louis County detectives.
Kyle's lawyer, David M. Bigeleisen, said he could not discuss the case. Vanvlerah's lawyer did not return a call seeking comment.
Kyle is listed as an assistant professor in the Public Affairs and Administration Department of California State University, East Bay. A profile on its website says he has a doctorate in an interdisciplinary program in law and social sciences, and a master's degree in political science from Arizona State University.
The profile says he "taught and conducted research" at Penn State University's Harrisburg, Pa., campus before going to Cal State. It also says he taught English as a second language in Asia, published a book on homelessness, is editor of the newsletter of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and once chaired the society's Crime and Juvenile Delinquency division.
Vanvlerah graduated from Marquette High School in Clarkson Valley in 2008.
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