Former North Memorial Health Care President and CEO David W. Cress entered a guilty plea Wednesday in connection with a prostitution bust for which he was arrested in September.

Cress, whose employment at Robbinsdale-based North Memorial ended several weeks after his arrest, pleaded guilty to a single count of engaging in prostitution-which is a misdemeanor, according to Hennepin County court documents.

The plea was entered before Hennepin County District Judge Robert Blaeser, who sentenced Cress to one year of probation and a $350 fine.

In October, Cress pleaded not guilty, and he had been scheduled for a jury trial on February 22.

Richfield police arrested 60-year-old Cress alongside about a dozen other men during a day-long vice operation last fall. No additional details about the circumstances surrounding the arrest were released because the case was part of an ongoing investigation, but the Star Tribune reported that it occurred at a hotel.

Cress joined North Memorial in 1982 and was named president and CEO in 2005. At the time of his arrest, he was chairman of the board at Maple Grove Hospital and served on the board of directors at the Minnesota Hospital Association and the North Memorial Foundation.

North Memorial announced in late September that Loren “Larry” Taylor-then-chairman of the hospital system's board of trustees-would replace Cress as CEO.

The flagship hospital of Robbinsdale-based North Memorial Health Care, which employs more than 5,000, is North Memorial Medical Center. It is among the largest hospitals in Minnesota based on available beds and operating revenue.