North Memorial Health Care President and CEO David W. Cress, 60, was arrested Wednesday morning by Richfield police and faces a misdemeanor prostitution charge.

Richfield police Lieutenant Jay Henthorne confirmed that Cress was arrested along with about a dozen other men during a day-long vice operation.

Henthorne would not confirm the location of the arrest because he said that doing so could compromise future operations, but the Star Tribune reported that it occurred at a hotel. No additional details about the circumstances surrounding the arrest are being released because the case is under investigation, Henthorne said.

According to Hennepin County jail records, Cress was released from the jail Wednesday afternoon after posting $50 bail. He is due to appear in court on September 15.

Cress joined North Memorial in 1982 and was named president and CEO in 2005. He is chairman of the board at Maple Grove Hospital and serves on the board of directors at the Minnesota Hospital Association and the North Memorial Foundation.

“This is a troubling, personal situation, but North Memorial's focus will continue to be on providing our patients and their families with excellent care,” Larry Taylor, chairman of North Memorial's board of trustees, said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

The hospital system did not indicate in the statement whether Cress' employment status will change in light of the arrest and the charge that he faces.

The flagship hospital of Robbinsdale-based North Memorial Health Care, which employs more than 5,000, is North Memorial Medical Center. It is the seventh-largest hospital in Minnesota based on its number of available beds.