A Colorado martial arts instructor accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old student was arrested Monday in Texas, police said Wednesday.
Michael Theo, 21, the son of Joseph Seo, who owns Theo Martial Arts Academy in Colorado, was arrested during a traffic stop in Texas, Westminster Police Department spokeswoman Cheri Spotke said. .
Spotke confirmed that Seo worked at his father's company.
The martial arts academy said in a written statement to the Denver Post that it was “aware of the allegations against one of our employees, Mr. Michael Theo.” “We take these allegations very seriously. While the investigation is ongoing, the decision has been made to dismiss the instructor. Mr. , we have no contact with martial artists.”
Texas authorities arrested So during a traffic stop in Spicewood, an unincorporated community in central Texas, and took him to the Travis County Jail, where he is awaiting extradition, according to a Wednesday news release from Westminster police. That's what it means.
According to the release, an ongoing inappropriate relationship between Seo (then 19 years old) and a 14-year-old female student was reported to the police, and a warrant for Seo's arrest was issued in February 2023.
Westminster Police said after a thorough investigation, a warrant was issued for Seo for sexual assault of a child by a person in a position of trust, where the victim was under the age of 15.
The problem is the 1 year age difference.
“If she was 16, we wouldn't even be able to file a report on that,” Spotke said.
According to this interpretation of the law, if a minor is under the age of 15 and has a relationship with someone who is at least four years older, it constitutes sexual assault of a child by someone in a position of trust, Spotke said. said. If she were 16 years old, her age difference criteria would have increased to 10 years.
No other victims have come forward and police are not actively searching for them, Spotke said.
The extradition process is up to the courts, so exactly when Soh will return to Colorado and the timeline for his indictment are currently unknown, Spotke said.
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