David Cress, the hospital executive arrested and charged with engaging in prostitution this week, has been suspended indefinitely without pay as president and chief executive of North Memorial Health Care, officials said late Thursday.
Loren Taylor, chairman of the parent of North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, has been named interim CEO effective immediately, officials said. Robert Potts, the board's current vice chairman, will replace Taylor as chairman. Taylor will also replace Cress as chairman of North Memorial's hospital in Maple Grove.
Cress, 60, was one of about a dozen men arrested at a Richfield hotel during a daylong vice operation. He was released from jail Wednesday and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 15 on a misdemeanor charge.
He has been at North Memorial since 1982, and took over as the top executive in 2005.
Taylor was appointed to the North Memorial board of trustees in 1997 and has served as chairman since 2000.
"This leadership change will ensure that North Memorial's operations, strategic planning and service to the community are not interrupted," officials said in a statement.
JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY
