PGPD Grand Jury Indicts Suspended Officer

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A Prince George’s County grand jury today indicted a suspended Prince George’s County Police officer. Corporal Tristan Thigpen faces several charges to include sexual abuse of a minor, second degree assault, third degree sex offense and fourth degree sex offense. He is now suspended without pay.

Thigpen is accused of inappropriately touching a young child whom he knows. This allegation stems from an incident that occurred on April 1, 2020. At the time, Thigpen was already suspended on an unrelated matter. The PGPD suspended Thigpen in August of 2018 following his arrest for DUI in Nevada.

The Prince George’s County Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division brought its investigation of the sexual abuse allegation to the State’s Attorney’s Office for consideration of criminal charges.

“The fact the allegations against this officer involve a child make them all the more troubling. The officer had already been on suspension when our department was made aware of this allegation. We immediately opened an investigation and brought this case to the State’s Attorney’s Office for possible prosecution,” said Interim Police Chief Hector Velez.

Thigpen joined the PGPD in 2006 and was assigned to the Bureau of Patrol prior to his 2018 suspension.

Anyone with relevant information on Thigpen is asked to call the Internal Affairs Division at 301-352-1200.

Disclaimer: In the U.S.A., all persons accused of a crime by the State are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. See: https://so.md/presumed-innocence. Additionally, all of the information provided above is solely from the perspective of the respective law enforcement agency and does not provide any direct input from the accused or persons otherwise mentioned. You can find additional information about the case by searching the Maryland Judiciary Case Search Database using the accused's name and date of birth. The database is online at https://so.md/mdcasesearch . Persons named who have been found innocent or not guilty of all charges in the respective case, and/or have had the case ordered expunged by the court can have their name, age, and city redacted by following the process defined at https://so.md/expungeme.