PORTLAND — A local man and woman pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Wednesday to hiring a 13-year-old Lisbon girl as a prostitute.
Shawna Calhoun, 24, of Lewiston and Alvin Houston Jr., 27, of Auburn admitted to the charge of transporting the girl with the intent to engage her in prostitution. Each faces 10 years in federal prison.
In late 2014 police found the pair in a Bangor motel while searching for a missing Lisbon girl.
On Dec. 23, according to court records, Calhoun and Houston arranged to rent a car in Maine. On the same day, Houston drove Calhoun and a 13-year-old girl from Maine to Boston where they stayed with Calhoun’s family.
While in Boston, Calhoun and Houston drove the 13-year-old girl to various hotels in the Boston area to engage in prostitution.
On Dec. 30, prosecutors said, Calhoun and Houston learned that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking for the girl. They drove her in the rental car back to Maine and ultimately to Bangor, where the girl again engaged in prostitution.
Early on New Year’s Eve, Calhoun and Houston drove the girl to a hotel in the Bangor area so she could meet with a client for the purpose of prostitution, prosecutors said. The purported client turned out to be a law enforcement officer. Calhoun and Houston were arrested in the parking lot, where they were waiting in the rental car.
Houston and Calhoun will be sentenced after a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office. Both have criminal histories in the Lewiston-Auburn area. Houston’s record dates back to 2009 and includes charges of drug possession, theft, carrying a concealed weapon and domestic assault. Calhoun has faced numerous drug-trafficking charges in the area.
The prostitution case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Homeland Security Investigations Human Trafficking Task Force, the Lisbon and Bangor police departments and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.
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