CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / HEMET

Police have arrested a U.S. Marine Corps recruiter on charges of felony pimping and kidnapping and are looking into whether he used sex with a 14-year-old girl to entice potential recruits.

Staff Sgt. Bryan Damone Cunningham, 33, of San Pedro pleaded not guilty to seven felonies last Thursday after police in Orange discovered the teenage girl in a car with Cunningham and two other men.

The two men, ages 18 and 19, were potential Marine recruits, police said.

The girl, who has since been returned to her parents in Hemet, told police that she met Cunningham online and had sex with all three men.

She also told police Cunningham wanted her to work as a prostitute and had tried to take her to Los Angeles County against her will.

Police said they are trying to determine if Cunningham may have been using the girl to entice Marine recruits.

“It’s not proven . . . but when you look at it, this is a grown man, a Marine staff sergeant,” Hemet Police Lt. Joe Nevarez said. “Why would he be taking them out to have sex with a 14-year-old girl?”

Cunningham’s attorney, Dane Levy, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday.

The two potential Marine recruits face felony charges of having sex with a minor.

Cunningham is being held on $1-million bail and has a court hearing June 18, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Riverside County district attorney’s office.

-- Associated Press