By BEN LEONARD and FRANK PASTOR

Times Staff Writers

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An autistic boy was found in a urine-soaked diaper earlier this month after the man who was supposed to be watching him and another child left them home alone while he visited a strip club, deputies said.

Kalvin Dwayne Guice, 38, of Seminole was arrested and faces charges of child neglect, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

According to the arrest affidavit, the two children — one of which "suffers from brain damage, is severely autistic and physically disabled" — were left in Guice's care while their mother attended her mother's funeral in Georgia.

Guice told deputies he left the children alone for four hours while he spent time at the 4-Play Gentlemen's Club, about nine miles away, on Gandy Beach in St. Petersburg. There, he consumed four to five "Jack and Cokes" before driving home.

Guice acknowledged that the children "are unable to take care of themselves, especially in the event of an emergency."

Speaking with the Tampa Bay Times, Guice identified himself as the children's father. He said he was with them all day, ate dinner with them and put his 11-year-old son to bed around 8:30 p.m. Around 10:30, he said he checked on his son and 9-year-old daughter to make sure they were okay.

He said he planned to have a couple of drinks and then return home. He didn't think it was against the law to leave the children.

"It kind of got out of hand," he said.

Guice was arrested and charged with neglect of a child without great bodily harm. He was released after posting $5,000 bail.