Md. Lawyer Pleads Guilty in Fla. to Federal Teen-Sex Enticement-Attempt Charge
Married to another lawyer, 48-year-old Howard Scott Kalin has been a great father and mentor to other children in his Maryland community, neighbors told the Baltimore Sun earlier this year.
In addition to practicing family and business law, he ran an entertainment company and billed himself as a “master balloon entertainer” and magician. He also combined his love of camping with holiday events, using the woods near the family’s home in Essex as a backdrop for spooky Halloween scenarios and towing the kids around to see them behind his tractor.
But the 1988 University of Baltimore law graduate allegedly had another side, which he demonstrated during a multi-month Internet chat with a man in Florida who Kalin thought was the uncle of a 14-year-old boy. In fact, the man was an undercover Lake County sheriff’s detective and his “nephew,” with whom Kalin planned to have an intimate encounter, traveling to Orlando to do so, authorities say, was another officer. His age-regressed digital image was sent to Kalin, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
The two men began their conversation as the result of a “bored nephew” ad placed by the detective on Craigslist.
Now Kalin is facing a possible prison sentence of as much as 10 years, after pleading guilty in federal court in Orlando to attempted enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, the Sentinel reports.
He originally faced charges of traveling to meet a minor for sexual activity, attempted lewd or lascivious battery and two counts of using a computer for prohibited purposes, reports the Baltimore Jewish Times.
None of the articles includes any comment from Kalin or his counsel. However, Kalin told a judge during a hearing earlier this year, as he sought bond, “I am a family man who made a terrible, terrible mistake. … It’s never happened before. It would never happen again,” the Sentinel says.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Md. Lawyer, Owner of ‘Funhouse Entertainment,’ Is Arrested in Fla. Child Sex Sting”
