A Prince George’s County police officer is facing termination after a hearing board found him guilty on charges related to a video posted last year showing him in uniform, embracing a woman and then getting into the back seat of a police cruiser with her.
The video of the officer, Cpl. Francesco Marlett, circulated in September of 2023. He was suspended shortly after.
Marlett went before an administrative hearing board this month on 28 charges related to unbecoming conduct and how it impacted his job performance.
The board found him guilty on a number of charges, including two that the board determined were grounds for termination. Those charges were violations of the PGPD that states:
“Employees shall maintain a strong personal commitment to perform their duties properly. Failure to honor this commitment results in a reduction of professional standards, a potential decrease of public service, and potential increase in jeopardy to others.”
The board’s lead judge now has a 45-day window to file the final order to terminate Marlett, according to Prince George’s County Inspector General Anthony Bennett. Then, it will be up to Chief of Police Malik Aziz to carry out the order.
The video of Marlett went viral on TikTok, garnering more than 2 million views.
It appeared to show Marlett embracing a woman in front of a marked Prince George’s County police cruiser and then following her into the back seat and closing the door. A woman claiming to be Marlett’s wife told WTOP news partner 7News that Marlett was having an affair with the woman in the video.
The video was filmed by Nelson Ochoa at Southlawn Park in Oxon Hill.
“I couldn’t believe what I was recording because it’s not something that you see everyday, a cop going to the back of a patrol car in the uniform to do … I don’t know what,” Ochoa told WTOP shortly after the video went viral. “It was a public park with kids running around.”
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