DC police officer charged with prostituting teen girls

A 24-year veteran of the Washington, D.C., Police Department was charged Wednesday with two counts of prostituting two teenage girls, court records show. Linwood Barnhill Jr., 47, was arrested Wednesday after the search for a missing 16-year-old girl brought police to his apartment, the Washington Post reported. At his first court appearance, Barnhill said he met the girl at a mall and another girl at a bus stop. He recruited them as models before setting them up with older men who paid up to $80 for sex, the newspaper said. Barnhill was charged with two counts of pandering a minor for the purpose of prostitution and was ordered detained until a preliminary hearing set for Friday. On Tuesday, police and firefighter divers pulled seven-year D.C. police veteran Marc Washington, 32, from the Potomac River a day after he was released from jail on charges of taking semi-nude pictures of a 15-year-old runaway girl. Washington died at a hospital a few hours later. Police believe the two cases are unrelated, but both officers were assigned to the 7th District, and D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier acknowledged the cases have hit the force's reputation. "As disheartening as it is to have members of this department involved in this type of conduct, I take solace in knowing that it was members of this department who worked tirelessly to ensure that they were brought to justice," Lanier said in a statement earlier.