SAN ANTONIO – A University of Texas at San Antonio professor who was arrested Tuesday at the Northwest Side campus has been identified.
Zaid Mashhour Haddad is facing one count of possession of child pornography and another count of knowingly accessing with intent to view any material that contained an image of child pornography, the Department of Justice said Wednesday.
An arrest affidavit states Haddad, a UTSA Associate Professor of Instruction, Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching, was in his apartment viewing child sexual abuse material when authorities conducted a search warrant in July 2021.
A U.S. magistrate judge signed Haddad’s arrest warrant on Tuesday afternoon, court documents show.
It is unclear why Haddad was arrested nearly four years after authorities conducted a federal search warrant.
Haddad is being accused of receiving videos of child abuse material through the Telegram messaging app. Authorities said the contents of the link he watched contained 181 different videos.
The Department of Justice said the alleged links would often lead to a virtual Zoom meeting, where the video would be live streamed using content from a separate file sharing application.
Following his arrest, a UTSA spokesperson told KSAT that Haddad has since been placed on paid administrative leave “pending the outcome of the case.”
“The university has also initiated an internal probe, and there is no indication that any university resources were associated with the matter,” the university’s statement read, in part.
The UTSA spokesperson said the university will continue to fully cooperate with law enforcement’s investigation into Haddad.
Before working at UTSA, Haddad was a faculty member and doctoral student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Haddad has been a professor at UTSA since 2014, according to UTSA’s website.
If convicted, Haddad faces up to 20 years in prison, lifetime supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000, and he must register as a sex offender.
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