A former Garland County sheriff's deputy has pleaded guilty to accusations he took a teenage girl to Hot Springs to engage in prostitution.
The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas said Monday that 39-year-old Neil Parliment entered the guilty plea in court Monday in Hot Springs.
Parliment was a marine patrol officer at the time but has since resigned from the sheriff's office.
“Mr. Parliment abused his position of public trust to engage in illegal activities involving prostitution," U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas Conner Eldridge said in a statement. "This activity is unacceptable, and we will continue to bring to justice those individuals who seek to use similar positions to perpetrate crimes.”
Authorities say the investigation started in February when the teenage girl from Memphis contacted police in Little Rock and said she had been traveling to Arkansas to engage in prostitution.
The girl told police that Parliment was a client and showed investigators "numerous text messages regarding her traveling to Hot Springs to engage in prostitution," according to a news release from Eldridge's office.
The release said Parliment made arrangements for the girl to go to Hot Springs, where they engaged in sexual activity for payment in a local hotel.
"Parliment then arranged for her to meet with other individuals, whom she also engaged in sexual activity with in exchange for payment," the release said.
Parliment was arrested in June. He faces up to 20 years in prison during sentencing, which has not been set.
Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more on this story.