Sex charges filed against prof


By Holly Wells
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Friday, October 28, 2005

The interim assistant dean of the music department was arrested early this week on a warrant for two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, police said.

Brian D. Ebie, 38, was served the warrant on Monday by the University of Arizona Police Department and booked into Pima County Jail, said Sgt. Eugene Mejia, UAPD spokesman.

Police arrested Ebie, who is also an assistant music professor, after receiving a call from the Akron Police Department in Akron, Ohio, Mejia said.

The warrant was issued Oct. 17 by APD as a result of a sexual relationship Ebie had with a high school student from 1999 to 2000, according to an APD press release.

The relationship occurred while Ebie was employed by the Cuyahoga Falls School District. He was the victim's music teacher at Roberts Middle School, the release stated.

Information about the relationship was not disclosed until after Ebie had left Ohio and started working at the UA. Ebie voluntarily surrendered his Ohio teaching credentials at the time of the disclosure, according to the release.

Ebie is being held at Pima County Jail on $100,000 bond and is waiting an extradition hearing.

Ebie was hired at the UA in 2001, said Colleen Lester, advancement and communications director for the College of Fine Arts.

He spent 25 percent of his time as music faculty and 75 percent of his time as the interim assistant dean, Lester said.

Other professors are substituting for the course he taught, a graduate class called Behavioral Research in the Arts, and his administrative duties are also being handled internally, Lester said.

Ebie has been a music educator at both secondary and higher education levels for more than 17 years, according to the School of Music Web site.

He was previously an adjunct professor of music education and organ at the University of Akron.

Phone calls to the Dean of Students Office and Human Resources were not returned by press time.