A Prince George’s County police officer who has been with the department for more than 20 years has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman in 2017 while he was off-duty.
Lt. Richard Tallant was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of second-degree sex offense, the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s office said in a statement Wednesday.
In another statement, Prince George’s County police said Tallant is accused of sexually assaulting a woman he was familiar with “while attending a social outing” in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, in February 2017.
Tallant’s police powers were suspended in April when the department was first made aware of the allegations, police said. The department’s Internal Affairs Division immediately launched an internal investigation, police said, and it took its findings to prosecutors to consider criminal charges.
Tallant, who joined the department in 1997 and had most recently been assigned to the Narcotics Enforcement Division, has been suspended without pay, according to police.
Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said in a statement that pledged her office “will prosecute crimes of sexual assault no matter the professional status of the offender.”
Last fall, a Prince George’s County grand jury indicted Officer Ryan Macklin on rape charges after he was accused of forcing a woman he pulled over for a traffic stop to perform oral sex while he was on duty and in a marked police cruiser.
