Officer resigns after being caught in prostitution investigation

<p>A Gwinnett County police officer has resigned after being caught soliciting a sex act for money at a local massage parlor.</p><p>Officer John A. Neal admitted paying $220 for a sex act from a female employee at the Norcross business when confronted by his supervisors with a credit card receipt. He resigned instead of being fired on March 31, according to personnel records.</p><p>Neal had been employed with Gwinnett Police since May 2003, according to Cpl. Dan Huggins, the department spokesman.</p><p>Police had begun cracking down on massage parlors that were being used as fronts for prostitution and investigators conducted an undercover operation in February at the business Neal went to.</p><p>A female employee and the business owner were arrested and a credit card machine with credit card receipts was confiscated as evidence. Later, as a crime analyst was sorting through the receipts, she recognized Neal's name and reported him to her supervisor.</p><p>During a professional standards unit interview, Neal told an officer he went to the spa when he was emotionally stressed because of marital problems.</p><p>Neal has not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.</p><p>"His admission of guilt in the professional standards interview is not admissible in criminal trial," Huggins said.</p><p>"Other than his credit card receipt, there is no other information linking him to that establishment. I don't think you could charge anybody under those circumstances."</p><p>Neal is the second Gwinnett County police officer allegedly caught in inappropriate dealings with the spas. In October, Officer Chris In was arrested after an internal investigation found he and his girlfriend were accepting bribes to tip off employees at massage parlors when undercover stings were planned.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2866524)</p>