A Washington, D.C., police officer has been arrested for being a pimp. Former 24 year veteran cop Linwood Barnhill, 48, of the Metropolitan Police Department was pimping out kids as young as 17. According to law enforcement officials, Barnhill would go to bus stops and other hangouts of runaway kids and take them back to his apartment.
After befriending them, he would pay for clothing and hairstyles and take naked pictures of them for his own use and to post on Backpage.com to pimp the girls. The website www.backpage.com is well known as a digital corner for prostitution. Barnhill pleaded guilty to all charges in a plea agreement. U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., stated “Linwood Barnhill betrayed his duty to protect the community by trying to exploit teenage girls. As a result of his deplorable conduct, he will now be headed to prison to join the criminals he spent his career locking up. We appreciate the tremendous work of the MPD detectives and FBI agents who worked so hard to bring Mr. Barnhill’s betrayal to light.”
Barnhill was originally arrested on Dec. 3, 2013 when the MPD Youth Investigation Division found a missing 16-year-old girl at his residence. He had picked up the girl at a local mall and also recruited a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old girl at bus stations. The girls were pimped out for about $80 each of which Barnhill kept $20. Police seized nude pictures of various young girls and even a cellphone video of a girl performing oral sex on Barnhill.
This is the second well publicized incident involving MPD cops and child exploitation. Another officer, Marc Washington, was arrested on child pornography charges. Washington was found to be in possession of nude pictures of runaway girls and was arrested around the same time as Barnhill. However, the day after he was released his body was found, a victim of an apparent suicide.
