A former Portland First Selectman and retired police officer has been charged in a sex sting involving minors in Florida.
Edward Kalinowski, 59, was arrested Friday in Volusia County, Florida after police say he traveled to a Daytona Beach home to have sex with what he believed to be a 13-year-old boy.
It is a situation that has been made famous by Dateline NBC's "To Catch A Predator" series, although the operation had nothing to do with NBC or Dateline.
Several Florida law enforcement agencies set up the seven-day sting operation, arresting 15 men in all. The suspects, including Kalinowski, set up encounters over the computer with what they believed to be children between the ages of 9 and 15, according to Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson. The men were arrested when they showed up at the house. A video of the arrest shows Kalinowski, who now lives in Ocala, Florida, arrived at the home without a shirt on. Officers arrested him as he walked through the front door.
Kalinowski is identified by the Volusia County Sheriff's office as a retired First Selectman from Portland and a former Portland police officer. He is charged with use of a computer to seduce or solicit a child, traveling to meet or lure a child for sex and use of a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony.
