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Prominent Lawyer Charged In Tampa Sex Sting

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune
and RAY REYES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 30, 2008

Updated: 09/30/2008 07:07 pm

Kevin Napper

TAMPA - A local defense lawyer who is married to a circuit judge is accused of propositioning an undercover police officer for sex, records show.

Kevin Napper, 51, of Tampa, was released from a Hillsborough County jail Monday after posting $250 bail. He is charged with soliciting someone to commit prostitution, a misdemeanor.

Public records show Napper practices criminal law and is president-elect of the Tampa Bay Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. His wife is Circuit Judge Katherine Essrig.

Tampa police say Napper was driving a gold Mercedes-Benz about 2 p.m. Monday when he offered an undercover officer $40 to perform a sex act.

The undercover sting is part of a focused initiative to clean up the Drew Park area, police said.

Once arrested, Napper declined to consent to an interview with police, a report states. When an officer asked what happened, Napper said, "I made a simple mistake," a report states.

Police found what appeared to be a gold wedding band in the driver's-side door panel of the Mercedes, which was impounded, a report states.

Napper and Essrig could not be reached today for comment.

Brian Albritton, the president of the Tampa Bay Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, said today that the arrest will have no impact on Napper's upcoming term as chapter president and that it would not interfere with his duties.

"He's well-regarded," Albritton said.

Napper is a lawyer with the Carlton Fields law firm. He practices in white-collar criminal defense, governmental investigations, internal investigations and general civil trial law, according to the law firm's Web site.

He was a special assistant U.S. attorney from 1989-90 and was an assistant state attorney for the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office from 1987-93, the Web site states.

Napper is the second prominent lawyer arrested in the Drew Park area this year. Defense lawyer Victor D. Martinez was arrested in June on a misdemeanor sex charge after police found him fondling himself in an adult theater.

Martinez has since entered an intervention program for first-time offenders and upon completion of the program the charges will be dropped, his attorney said.

Former WTVT, Channel 13 general manager Robert Linger was arrested in May on charges of lewd and lascivious behavior and exposure of a sexual organ at Fantasy Land on Lois Avenue. Linger also entered an intervention program to have his arrest record expunged, the state attorney's office said.

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