A Cal State East Bay professor arrested for allegedly possessing child pornography earlier this month was charged Wednesday in Missouri with statutory rape and sodomy after federal investigators say a 20-year-old St. Louis woman allowed him to victimize her 13-month-old daughter.

Kenneth Kyle, 47, of San Francisco was originally arrested March 15 and charged in Superior Court with one count of possessing child pornography and one count of child exploitation, after authorities said they had found hundreds of images on his home computer in the South of Market area and on his laptop. He was later charged in federal court with one count of transporting child pornography.

Information that federal authorities found on Kyle's computers led them to the St. Louis area, where on Wednesday, St. Louis County police arrested college student Tessa Vanvlerah at her parents' home in the affluent suburb of Ballwin.

According to St. Louis County police, Kyle met Vanvlerah online and visited her four times in the past five months. The alleged molestations took place during those visits, police said.

"Ballwin is very nice, nice homes, nice schools, low crime," said Officer Rick Eckhard of the St. Louis County Police. "For something like this to happen around here, people are pretty shocked."

Eckhard said the 13-month-old girl was treated at a hospital and is now in custody of the state.

According to court records, the FBI first suspected Kyle of downloading child pornography in December 2009.

An affidavit written by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents said his laptop contained more than 529 images of child porn and 33 child porn videos. It was unclear if any of the images involved Vanvlerah's daughter, Eckhard said.

Missouri state authorities charged Kyle with statutory rape, statutory sodomy and promoting child pornography. He is being held in jail in San Francisco.

Vanvlerah is being held in St. Louis County on the same charges, as well as on one count of incest.

Kyle has been an assistant professor in public affairs and administration at Cal State East Bay for four years.

According to his profile, which has since been removed from the Hayward university's Web site, his research interests include the application of feminist theories, "specific social problems (e.g., homelessness and sexual deviance), institutions (e.g., the family and the academy) and policies (e.g., mandatory computer ownership for university students and chemical castration for sex offenders)."

A spokesman for the campus, Barry Zepel, said Kyle was still on active teaching status.