California faculty member charged with human trafficking

A California community college faculty member and current or former coach faces nine charges, including pimping and human trafficking, the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office says.

Kyle Whitmore, a tenured communication studies faculty member for Diablo Valley College’s Pleasant Hill campus, allegedly trafficked two women “to commit crimes of prostitution,” the district attorney’s news release said. He’s also being charged with pandering and “four counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object,” the release said.

The Contra Costa Community College District said in an emailed statement that “some” of Whitmore’s alleged offenses involved a student and that it put him on administrative leave upon his Sept. 7 arrest. The college district didn’t provide interviews to Inside Higher Ed Wednesday.

The district attorney’s office said one woman whom Whitmore allegedly trafficked reported it to college authorities, after which sheriff’s deputies arrested him. A district attorney spokesman said Whitmore is being held without bail at the Martinez Detention Facility ahead of a Tuesday arraignment.

The college district said Whitmore was a football coach last semester and not a coach this semester, but the district attorney’s office said he’s a track coach.

In its statement, the college district said it’s “grateful to staff who, through proper training, were able to identify a serious situation and quickly report it to our Police Services, who subsequently communicated with the sheriff’s office and district attorney … We ask the community to be patient and allow processes to move forward without making assumptions or contributing to speculation. The district is devastated by the seriousness of the allegations that have been raised thus far. The safety of our students and staff is our main priority.”

Whitmore’s lawyer, Darryl Stallworth, said he won’t make a statement until after court proceedings Tuesday.

The district attorney’s office asks those with additional information to call the sheriff’s office Investigation Division at 925-313-2600.