Auburn Man Sentenced to Nine Years for Transporting a Minor for Prostitution

Contact: Julia M. Lipez
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Portland, Maine:  United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Alvin Houston, Jr., 28, of Auburn, Maine was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Judge Jon D. Levy to nine years in prison and five years of supervised release for transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent that she engage in prostitution.  He pleaded guilty on July 29, 2015.

Court records reveal that on December 23, 2014, Houston and Shawna Calhoun obtained a rental car in Maine and used it to drive a 13-year old girl and another individual from Maine to Boston, Massachusetts, where they stayed with Calhoun’s family.  While there, Calhoun and Houston drove the 13-year old girl to various hotels in the Boston area to engage in prostitution.  On December 30, 2014, Calhoun and Houston learned that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was looking for the minor.  They drove her in the rental car back to Maine and ultimately to Bangor, so that she could again engage in prostitution.  Early in the morning on December 31, 2014, Calhoun and Houston drove the minor to a hotel in the Bangor area so that she could meet with a client for the purposes of prostitution.  The purported client turned out to be a member of law enforcement.  Calhoun and Houston were arrested outside in the parking lot,
where they were waiting in the rental car. 

This case was investigated by the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Human Trafficking Task Force, the Lisbon and Bangor Police Departments, and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.