A former District of Columbia police officer accused of pimping two teenage girls pleaded guilty to charges of pandering with a minor for prostitution and possession of child porn.
Linwood Barnhill Jr. was arrested in December after a search for a missing 16-year-old girl led officers to his apartment. Court records say the girl told police that she met Barnhill at a mall and that he set up a sexual encounter for her with an older man. Another 15-year-old girl also told police that Barnhill set up a sexual encounter for her.
Barnhill took nude and clothed photos of the victim and then arranged for her to have sex with a man in his 40s or 50s in Barnhill's bedroom, charging documents said. Barnhill allegedly provided condoms for the encounter.
During a search of Barnhill's apartment, investigators found 100 to 200 condoms, an officer with the department's Juvenile Protection Division testified. The officer said the large amount of condoms was in line with something that would be found in a brothel.
During a bond hearing held shortly after Barnhill's arrest, an internal affairs detective testified that the department received a tip in 2011 that Barnhill was smoking marijuana and using his apartment for prostitution purposes.
Barnhill joined the D.C. police department in 1989 but had been on light duty since September 2012 after accidentally shooting himself. He later received a reprimand for using a holster that was not approved.
Barnhill was on administrative leave when he was arrested. He is no longer employed by the police department.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
A judge will decide Barnhill's sentence in September. Under D.C.'s guidelines for Barnhill's crimes, he could face up to 84 months in jail. But under federal guidelines, that jail time could double.
Barnhill's arrest followed a string of troubling events for the department. The same month Barnhill was arrested, Marc Washington, another officer with the MPD, was arrested on child pornography charges. His body was pulled from the Washington Channel weeks later.
A third officer was also under investigation for possibly tipping Washington off about his forthcoming arrest.
All three officers were employed in MPD's Seventh District, law enforcement sources said.
