Linwood Barnhill, a 59-year-old registered sex offender and former Metropolitan Police Department officer, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for recruiting minor girls for commercial sex acts. The sentencing took place in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., as announced by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.
Barnhill pleaded guilty on September 17, 2025, before Judge Jia M. Cobb to the charge of sex trafficking of a minor. In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Cobb ordered Barnhill to serve a lifetime of supervised release and pay $10,000 in restitution.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Reid Davis of the FBI Washington Field Office's Criminal Division joined U.S. Attorney Pirro in announcing the sentence.
“This former officer trafficked children on the streets of D.C. and at a strip club in Maryland. Then, after serving a seven-year sentence in prison, he resumed sex trafficking teen girls,” said U.S. Attorney Pirro. “Barnhill now has 27 years to think over what he did, and we won’t have to worry about his sex trafficking again.”
"While serving as a police officer over a decade ago, Barnhill preyed on underage girls. He took explicit photos of them and even forced one victim to work as a prostitute," said the FBI’s Davis. "Upon his release from prison, he resumed trafficking minors for sex. He also forced his victims to find other vulnerable girls for him to exploit. As today's sentencing demonstrates, the FBI will use every tool at our disposal to put habitual child predators in prison where they belong."
According to court documents, between April 2024 and April 2025, Barnhill recruited girls under the age of 18 for commercial sex acts and collected more than $10,000 from one victim alone during this period. He also coerced his victims into finding additional minors for exploitation.
In April 2024, Barnhill recruited a runaway 15-year-old girl by having her audition with a stripper pole installed in his basement and promising earnings through dancing at a strip club in Prince George’s County, Maryland, along with additional money from engaging in sexual acts with men at the club’s VIP rooms. He transported her back and forth several times each week.
During fall 2024, another 15-year-old girl was paid by Barnhill to recruit more minors for commercial sex work. She brought other underage girls to her home so that Barnhill could pick them up and drive them to locations known for commercial sex activity within the District of Columbia. Investigators found text messages with at least ten identified minor girls discussing working at "the club" and "VIP rooms" on Barnhill’s iCloud account.
Barnhill previously served seven years in prison following an October 2014 conviction on two counts of pandering a minor and possession of child pornography related to recruiting children into commercial sex work while serving as an officer in the Seventh District of D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Caroline Burrell.
This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood (www.projectsafechildhood.gov), an initiative launched by the Department of Justice aimed at protecting children from online exploitation and abuse by coordinating efforts among federal, state, and local agencies.
