Doctor must stand trial in sex sting case

The East Bay physician arrested in an underage sex sting organized by Petaluma police and NBC News must stand trial, a Sonoma County judge ruled Thursday.

The ruling was the second affirmation from a Sonoma County judge that prosecutors have enough evidence to try Dr. Maurice Wolin of Piedmont on a charge of attempted child molestation.

Wolin’s lawyer had argued that the sting operation, run by the NBC program “Dateline” with the Internet watchdog group Perverted Justice, amounted to entrapment.

Blair Berk, a Los Angeles lawyer representing Wolin, also told Judge Arthur Wick that there was not enough evidence to show Wolin attempted to engage in sex acts with a minor.

Berk can appeal Wick’s decision in the state 1st District Court of Appeal.

Wolin, meanwhile, is scheduled to be back in court on Feb 21 for pretrial proceedings.

Wolin was one of 29 men arrested in August 2006 after they allegedly engaged in lewd Internet chat conversations with adults posing as underage boys and girls.

The men were arrested when they went to a Petaluma home expecting to meet teenagers, presumably for sexual encounters. Before they were arrested by police, they were confronted by an NBC reporter.

Many of the men, though not Wolin, spoke on camera.

At least a dozen cases have been settled with plea bargains that included about nine months of jail time. Defendants also were required to register as sex offenders.