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SALT LAKE CITY — A college professor from Michigan has been charged with sexually abusing one of his students during a trip to Utah in 2022.
Dale Lee Sanders, 59, of Saginaw, was charged Tuesday in Utah's 3rd District Court with two counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.
On May 14, 2022, an adult male student from an undisclosed college in Michigan was in Salt Lake City with other students and went out for ice cream. Before going back to their hotel and checking with their professor, Sanders, they stopped to look at a river, according to charging documents.
"The ice cream was discussed with Sanders, however, the river excursion was not, so Sanders told (the student) that he would be staying in Sanders' room as punishment. (The student) stated that he was instructed to serve Sanders drinks in the 'buff,'" according to charging documents.
Sanders then put the man on the bed and told him "that if he wanted to get into grad school or get a new laptop, he had to keep his head level" before sexually abusing him, the charges state.
Sanders is no longer a professor at that college, according to Salt Lake police. Spokesman Brent Weisberg says detectives in Salt Lake City have been working with officers from the Michigan State Police as part of the investigation. Police have also been in contact with additional law enforcement agencies regarding possible cases in other jurisdictions, he said.
This story may be updated
