NC college professor got young girls to undress by pretending to be 15, feds say
Michael Edwin Dorcas was a Davidson College professor who wrote the book on snakes in North Carolina. Now he’s a registered sex offender, according to federal investigators.
Dorcas, 56, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 30 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to enticement of a minor this year, prosecutors in the Western District of North Carolina said Thursday in a news release.
He did so by catfishing underage girls online, court documents show.
Miriam Webster defines catfishing as “a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes.”
While pretending to be 15, Dorcas “befriended a 12-year-old female online and began chatting with her,” prosecutors said in the release.
“Over the course of their communication, Dorcas — who knew the victim was 12— suggested they communicate via video chat,” the release states.
Once she was on her webcam, prosecutors said Dorcas “lied to the minor, telling her that his video cam was not working, and instead sent her pictures of a teenage male claiming it was him.”
Citing court records, prosecutors said the girl then removed some of her clothes at his behest.
The State Bureau of Investigation started investigating Dorcas in February 2016 after a tip from officials in Wisconsin, WBTV, the Charlotte Observer’s news partner, previously reported.
The 12-year-old told investigators about the supposed 15-year-old she’d been chatting with online.
“Once the two started web chatting via Skype, the suspect was able to convince the victim to remove articles of clothing in order for the victim to expose her breast for the suspect’s sexual gratification,” the search warrant stated, according to WBTV. “The suspect requested the victim to remove her panties, however, the victim did not comply.”
The IP address was traced to Huntersville, where Dorcas lived. He was a professor of biology at Davidson College specializing in reptiles and snakes at the time, the media outlet reported.
Though he denied using computers owned by the small liberal arts college just north of Charlotte, the university reportedly hired a firm to search his equipment.
Investigators found “numerous chat logs” associated with his Skype username on the desktop computer Dorcas used at Davidson, WBTV reported. According to the warrant, he communicated with a total of 17 girls.
“During the communications on Dorcas’ devices with the suspected underage minors on Skype, the minors appeared to be in nothing but bras and panties at different times,” the warrant stated, according to WBTV.
Davidson College told the media outlet that Dorcas resigned May 23, 2016.
He pleaded guilty Feb. 28 and was released on a $25,000 bond, court documents show. Prosecutors said his sentence will start once a facility has been designated.
Dorcas will not be given the possibility of parole, according to the release.
This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 4:32 PM.
