An Air Force Academy instructor was charged with “internet luring of a child,” a class 4 felony, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado.
Capt. Paul Sikkema, 29, turned himself in on Wednesday morning and was being held without bond.
According to court documents, Arapahoe County Sheriff’s officer N. Rodriguez entered into a conversation via a chat website on Jan. 21 with an individual later identified as Sikkema. During the conversation, the officer posed as a 14-year-old female named, “Jenny.” The conversation later moved to text messaging over the course of a week.
“PAUL knowingly spoke to a 14 year old female online/via text message and phone calls. PAUL described explicit sexual explicit [sic] conduct to the 14 year old child and also made statements persuading her to meet for any purpose, this purpose being sex,” the affidavit states.
ACSO Internet Crimes Against Children investigators have arrested Paul Sikkema, a captain and instructor at the U.S. Air Force Academy on the charge of internet luring of a child, a class 4 felony. pic.twitter.com/qp0zengk1I
“We are aware of the arrest and can confirm Capt. Sikkema is a professor here at the academy,” the Air Force Academy said in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday. “We are tracking his civilian court case as it goes through the legal process and will cooperate fully as needed with the Arapahoe Sheriff’s Department.”
According to Sikkema’s faculty profile on the academy’s website, he received his commission from the Air Force Academy in 2012. He went on to earn a master’s degree in philosophy from Georgia State University and his thesis focused on the ethics of targeted killing.
He also attended undergraduate intelligence officer training and was assigned the 337th Air Control Squadron at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida as an instructor for undergraduate air battle manager training, according to the academy profile. He returned the Air Force Academy in Colorado to take a position as instructor in the philosophy department in the fall of 2017. He was teaching the ethics course for the department.
ABC News was unable to reach anyone at phone numbers listed for Sikkema in court records and attempts to determine if he has legal representation were unsuccessful.
