'DATELINE' DOCTOR GETS JAIL TIME IN CHILD-SEX STING:EAST BAY PHYSICIAN NABBED IN PETALUMA MUST REGISTER AS SEX OFFENDER FOR LIFE

The East Bay doctor caught in a nationally televised child-sex sting in Petaluma in 2006 was sentenced Wednesday to two months in jail and will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life

Maurice Wolin, 52, of Piedmont, who had explicit online chats with a decoy posing as a 13-year-old girl, also was given three years' probation and likely will be stripped of his license to practice medicine.

District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said the sentence from Judge Arthur Wick mirrored his recommendation, except that he had asked that Wolin serve six months in jail instead of two.

"Our highest priority is protecting children, and this case reflects that priority," Passalacqua said.

Wolin had mounted a long legal battle to get the case dismissed, challenging the admissability of evidence contained on a malfunctioning computer hard drive.

Wolin pleaded no contest in December to a felony charge of attempting a lewd act with a child under the age of 14 years old. His attorney could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Wolin could apply for alternatives to incarceration, including electronic monitoring that would allow him to remain at his home in Alameda County, officials said.

Four cases now remain from the original 31 arrests made by Petaluma police with assistance from the group, Perverted Justice. They were aired on the NBC "Dateline" series, "To Catch a Predator." Most sentences have ranged from probation to up to nine months in jail, although at least two defendants went to prison because of their prior records.

Petaluma police Lt. Matthew Stapleton said that although a majority of the defendants were from outside Sonoma County and did not harm any children, the sting was a success because it sent a message to pedophiles who might go online in search of sex.

Because of budget restrictions, a sting of the same scope probably wouldn't be attempted again, but Stapleton said the department still keeps an eye on popular Web sites such as Craigslist.

"We accomplished what we were after," said Stapleton, who led the case. "I feel very satisfied."

However, others said the sting amounted to illegal entrapment, arguing a 13-year-old would not have been sophisticated enough to lure men through e-mails. Others said law enforcement should focus on local crime and that "Dateline" journalists behaved unethically.

"Why are we dealing with other jurisdictions' criminals when our justice system is having a hard time keeping up locally?" said Kathleen Pozzi, a public defender who handled two of the cases.

Dateline spokeswoman Jenny Tartikoff said in an e-mail that "To Catch a Predator" was discontinued in 2008 following a sting in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Tartikoff said producers believed the show had run its course and wanted to focus on issues such as national security, identity theft, online adoption and the economy.

The Petaluma convictions were the result of an August 2006 sting in which Pervereted Justice members posing as minors solicited men on the Internet. Defendants were lured to a Petaluma house, where they were filmed by "Dateline" crews and arrested.

Prosecutors said Wolin, a cancer doctor, chatted under the moniker "Talldreamy Doc" and discussed having sex with a decoy he believed was a 13-year-old girl for about three days. At one point, he got in his car and drove the 60 miles from Oakland to meet her.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.