A former Arizona State University professor will likely serve 90 days in jail and register as a lifetime sex offender after entering a guilty plea for aggravated attempt to lure a minor for sexual exploitation as part of a plea agreement.
Shiyou Wu, a professor at the university’s School of Social Work, was arrested last year after Chandler police said he tried to meet up with an undercover detective who posed as a 15-year-old boy, shared explicit material with them and propositioned them for various sexual acts.
The detective used age-regressed photos of themselves when they began to chat with a suspect who was identified as Shiyou Wu, according to court documents.
Wu told the detective, whom he believed to be the boy, that he had borrowed a large
SUV from his roommate and stopped at a store to purchase alcohol for the boy prior to meeting up at a Chandler apartment where he was arrested on April 18, 2025, documents said.
Wu requested an attorney before police asked him any questions. Wu faced one count of aggravated luring of a minor for sexual exploitation and was held in jail on a $100,000 bond, documents said. He was released with electronic monitoring a couple days later when he posted bond, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
He’s scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 15 in Maricopa County Superior Court.
ASU's website at the time listed Wu as being an associate professor and the associate director for doctoral education at the university's School of Social Work and also serving as the assistant director for "China Initiatives of the ASU Global Center for Applied Health Research."
While Wu is still listed on the university’s website, he doesn’t appear to have taught a course since Fall 2024. The school placed Wu on administrative leave following his arrest and he was barred from accessing the campus or engaging in any school activities, according to a university spokesperson at the time.
ASU did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Wu remained on administrative leave or if he had since been terminated.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Former ASU professor accused of attempting to lure a minor takes plea deal
