Charges against a former associate professor of psychology, Dr. Charles Wadlington, for continuous sexual abuse of a child have been dropped.

Wadlington was arrested in March of 2023 and charged with two counts of crime as well as injury to a minor based on allegations by his adoptive children. The charges, punishable by five to 99 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000,  related to alleged incidents dating back to 2018, according to court documents. The case was dismissed in December.

Wadlington

But Wadlington’s attorney, Chris Solis, said he believes the charges were dropped by the prosecution because of a lack of evidence.

“Wadlington passed a polygraph from a hired FBI agent saying that he didn’t do any of this,” Solis said. “His home had surveillance cameras all over it, and surveillance cameras recorded everything that went on in the house and stored it for a period of 30 days. So law enforcement could have pulled that footage and seen that none of this happened.”

The children were relocated from the household after the allegations originally came forward for the good of the family, Solis said.

After his arrest, Wadlington was placed on administrative leave, and whether he will return to ACU to teach is unclear, Solis said. For the last year, Wadlington has been working for a construction company, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

“Mr. Wadlington has extremely fond memories of ACU,” Solis said. “Obviously that was very fulfilling work for him and you know, it’s just it to me that’s very sad to have somebody lose a job that they love.”