Former DC cop sentenced to decades behind bars for child sex trafficking

WASHINGTON - A former MPD officer was sentenced to 27 years in prison for recruiting minor girls to engage in commercial sex. 

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced the sentencing on Friday. 

Linwood Barnhill, 59, pleaded guilty in September to sex trafficking a minor. In addition to a 27-year prison term, the judge ordered Barnhill to serve a lifetime of supervised release and to pay restitution of $10,000.

The backstory:

Barnhill, a former Metropolitan Police Department officer, recruited minor girls to engage in commercial sex acts between April 2024 and April 2025, according to court documents. He reportedly collected over $10,000 in profits from one of the minors he exploited. 

Barnhill also used his victims to recruit other minors to victimize, court documents say. 

"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."

Barnhill, a former officer in the Seventh District, was previously sentenced in October 2014 to seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to two counts of pandering a minor and possession of child pornography in connection with recruiting two children to work in commercial sex for him.

"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 Special Agent in Charge 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."