Charges dropped against former ACU Professor accused of child abuse, sex crimes

ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – All charges have been dropped against a former Abilene Christian University professor accused of child abuse and child sex crimes.

The Taylor County District Attorney’s Office formally dismissed one count of Sexual Abuse of a Child and one count of Injury to a Child, both filed against Charles Wadlington.

Both charges were issued after Wadlington’s adoptive children came forward with allegations.

In light of the charges being dismissed, Wadlington’s attorney issued the following statement outlining what led to these allegations being deemed false:

ABILENE PSYCHOLOGIST CHARLES WADLINGTON EXONERATED

On December 4, 2024, Judge Timothy Yeats dismissed a two-count indictment that alleged serious crimes of child abuse against Dr. Charles Wadlington. The dismissal came after the District Attorney’s office filed a Motion to Dismiss the case. This ends a lengthy saga for the Wadlington family which cost Dr. Wadlington his employment at Abilene Christian University and Breckenridge ISD which occurred in the wake of the filing of these unfounded charges.

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Dr. Wadlington is a lifelong Abilenian who worked to pay his way through college earning a masters degree from Abilene Christian University and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Texas Woman’s University. He eventually returned to ACU as a professor. Dr. Wadlington devoted his life to education and to his family, only to have this life disrupted by salacious and unsupported claims of child abuse.

Dr. Wadlington was represented by a team of attorneys at Keith & Lorfing, PLLC, who developed a robust battery of evidence demonstrating Dr. Wadlington’s innocence. Despite the alleged crime scene – the Wadlington home – being under constant video surveillance, the recordings showed the Wadlington home to be free of abuse. Countless witnesses were interviewed stating the accusers were troubled youths with a history of making demonstrably false accusations of sexual assault; these statements were supported by 14,000 pages of CPS records demonstrating the accusers’ history of lying. Dr. Wadlington was administered a polygraph examination on the issue of child abuse by retired FBI Special Agent Eric Johnson who previously ran the FBI’s polygraph unit. Dr. Wadlington denied the allegations during the examination and passed the polygraph with flying colors. Keith & Lorfing attorneys also successfully forced the District Attorney’s Office to disclose an interview with a child witness that stated on video that the witness and her siblings completely fabricated claims of abuse against Dr. Wadlington. All of this exculpatory evidence was tendered to the prosecutor’s office prior to their decision to indict Dr. Wadlington on these specious grounds.

While the dismissal stands as a just outcome, the reputational harm to Dr. Wadlington will take time to heal. Dr. Wadlington looks forward to serving his local community, his church, and his family in Abilene.

No further information is available at this time.