Dancing On Maurice Wolin's Grave

Maurice Wolin was born on February 28th, 1958. He apparently came from a wealthy family, as he attended a private college called Oberlin University in Ohio until 1980 after graduating high school in 1976, and he got a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He moved to the Buffalo area, receiving his master's degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo Medical School in 1984. He conducted a residency there from 1984 to 1987 before becoming the Chief Medical Resident at the University of Minnesota from 1987 to 1988. He was a Fellow of Oncology at the University of California Los Angeles from 1988 to 2001 and at the Leukemia Society of America from 1989 to 1991. He was an assistant professor at UCLA from 1988 to 1993 before leaving the academic world for the corporate one. He was the Vice President of Medical Affairs at the Chiron Corporation from 1996 to 2003, the Vice President of Scientific Affairs and Clinical Research from 2003 to 2005, and the Vice President of Medical and Scientific Affairs from 2005 until his arrest in Petaluma, California.

On October 27th, 1996, Dr. Maurice Jay Wolin married Dr. Lisa Ann Goodman in a ceremony performed by a rabbi in Berkeley, California. After the wedding, they had their two-week honeymoon in Hawaii. Quickly settling down, they had two daughters.

Wolin's happy career and family life came to an end in late August 2006. On August 23rd, 2006, Maurice J. Wolin began chatting with a 13-year-old decoy named Mandy. He lied about his age and his height, claiming to be 31 (really 48) and 6'4" (really 6'2"). At just 155 pounds, 6'2" already made him a lanky character, so I don't know why he lied by the statutory two inches. He and "Mandy," really a volunteer with Perverted Justice, chatted for a brief period. They exchanged pictures, he called her cute, and, after Mandy said she had a previous sexual encounter, he said he "usually dated younger girls... but not that young," implying a long history of previous infidelity and of online trolling.

This pattern would be confirmed in 2008 when, while out on bond for his "To Catch a Predator" charges and apparently still in a period of separation from his wife, he began chatting with a woman on a dating website. He spent a considerable amount of time bragging about his stature and wealth to her, and he also gave a false name. She decided to reverse search his phone number, and she uncovered his arrest, immediately ending their conversation.

Back in 2006, Wolin was also bragging about his wealth and his stature to a 14-year-old girl named Willow, also a decoy from Perverted Justice. He had first contacted Willow on August 22nd, which led to his conversation with Mandy being stopped by Perverted Justice to focus on setting up a meeting with Willow in Petaluma, California. Using the screen named "tall_dreamy_doc," he used a unique introductory line, asking for a female perspective: would she be okay with moving in with a "friend of his" (obviously him) if he had pictures of his ex around? He bragged about having a Porsche and a convertible, and, after learning her age, asked if she "dated older guys." Unlike many other predators, HE was the one who began suggesting a meet, not the decoy. This, of course, was after he talked about "touching... kissing... making each other feel good," performing oral sex on her, getting her "so wet," kissing her breasts (after asking her bra size), and asking her to perform numerous sex acts on him. He arrived on August 26th after making sure she was home alone and repeatedly expressing how nervous he was.

His conversation with the on-site decoy was brief. After spilling his margarita and getting flustered, he went to get a towel, spotted the production crew, and said he had to "head out." He went out the garage and was arrested by the Petaluma Police Department, throwing his sunglasses to the ground in frustration. He was taken to the makeshift booking station at a nearby airport and questioned, asking for a lawyer several times before deciding to continue talking, apparently frustrating detectives with his indecision on whether or not to waive his right to remain silent. He called his wife, saying he "didn't do anything, but... did something stupid" and asking Dr. Goodman to bring $30,000 in bail but leave their daughters at home.

Dr. Wolin had money, and he wound up spending nearly $1 million on a celebrity attorney named Blair Berk. Berk has represented such clients as Harvey Weinstein, Britney Spears, Kiefer Sutherland, Heather Locklear, Mel Gibson, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Berk wound up dragging out the legal process for nearly four years. After reading about the acquittal of predator Michael Wilusz in Fort Myers, Florida, after defense attorneys there requested hard drives, she tried the same tactic. However, unlike in Florida, it is up to the defense to prove the chatlogs were somehow tampered with and not up to the prosecution to prove they were not. She tried to claim he was entrapped and, in her words, "bullied" by Perverted Justice. His decision to drag out the process only led to him becoming a local celebrity (not in a good way) and probably only hurt his case with all the publicity.

A judge ruled the chat logs would be admissible evidence in court, and he was set to go on trial in January 2010. However, he pleaded guilty to a felony count of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor in December 2009. In February 2010, he was sentenced to two months in jail with three years of probation and lifetime registration as a sex offender. He was released in April and remained on probation until 2013.

He never divorced from his wife, and, after a period of separation, he is believed to have begun living with her again, if not as her loving husband, then as a father to their daughters. He quit his job after his arrest, and his medical license was revoked by California. While he could no longer teach, research, or practice, he could serve as a consultant, and he did. He was a consultant at a Singaporean company called S-Bio in 2007, Seattle Genetics from 2007 to 2009, and Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute in 2009. After his time in jail, he basically retired, working only as a consultant at Oncoprojects, a position he held from 2005 to 2021.

Maurice Wolin died on January 6th, 2021, of a suicide by hanging. He continued to live at the home he lived at in 2006 (the time of his arrest) in Piedmont. For at least the past year, he had been drinking heavily, and Lisa called the police in the past to report that Maurice was experiencing suicidal thoughts and ideation. His wife discovered him without a pulse and called the police, who responded and attempted CPR without success. His autopsy was performed the next day. His wife still lives in their home at 304 Scenic Avenue, but their daughters are now grown and out of the house. For such a promising start, his life came to a bitter, sad, disgusting, and pathetic end.

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