Man caught on video attacking pro-life protesters gets slap on wrist by judge
A 28-year-old man who was caught on video attacking two pro-life activists outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Baltimore was sentenced this week to a year of home detention and three years of probation.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Yvette M. Bryant rebuffed prosecutors’ calls for a 10-year sentence against Patrick Brice, 28, after he was found guilty of two counts of second-degree assault and reckless endangerment in relation to the May 2023 incident, according to The Baltimore Banner.
"What about my rights and my well-being?" one of the victims in the attack, Mark Crosby -- who was 73 years old at the time -- reportedly shouted at Bryant on Thursday as she left the bench.
Brice said on May 26, 2023, he intended to debate Richard Schaefer – the other victim, who was 84 – about the concept of sin outside the Planned Parenthood facility, but then lost it after Schaefer made what he perceived to be a racial remark, The Baltimore Banner reported. Surveillance video showed Brice shoving Schaefer into a flowerpot and then assaulting Crosby when he rushed to his aid.
"I just snapped one day," Brice was quoted by The Baltimore Banner as saying in court Thursday before apologizing to both men.
As part of his sentence, Brice must complete anger management classes, undergo drug and alcohol screening and remain in therapy, the website added.
It also said Crosby suffered permanent damage to his right eye as a result of the assault.
"This was not a minor altercation between two parties with differing views on abortion. It was a vicious, targeted assault on two senior citizens whose only ‘offense’ was praying for expectant mothers and offering life-affirming alternatives to abortion," Tom Brejcha, the President and Chief Counsel of the conservative law firm Thomas More Society, said in a statement.
"One of the victims was knocked unconscious. The other suffered broken facial bones and a lifelong eye impairment. This was an act of cowardice and cruelty, and sheer mayhem. This crime deserves far more serious consequences than a ‘get out of jail free’ card and a one-year home detention that amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist," he added.
In May 2023, images posted on the Facebook page of Jay Walton, the president of the Baltimore County Right to Life chapter, purportedly showed Crosby wearing a shirt with the message "Pro Life," with swelling over his eye and blood covering his face following the attack.
"One of our volunteers, Mark Crosby, was brutally beaten on May 26, 2023, while he was praying in front of the Planned Parenthood in Baltimore City," Walton wrote on a GoFundMe page at the time. "Mark is currently in the hospital being treated for the serious injuries he sustained."
"For years, Mark has prayed in front of the Planned Parenthood in Baltimore City to let the scared, young abortion-minded women know that they are loved, that their baby is loved," Walton added.
In a redacted police report, a Baltimore police officer said one of the victims, later identified as Crosby, told investigators he was standing outside the Planned Parenthood clinic "in support of Pro-life ideals when an unidentified [white male] attacked another member of the same beliefs as [him]."
The individual "stated that he immediately went to assist and was struck by the suspect and fell to the ground where he was struck in the face," the report said.
Police say the other victim, later identified as Schaefer, "advised the suspect had approached volunteer members of the Planned Parenthood and spoke with them before directing his attention to him.
That victim said "the suspect spoke with him in an aggressive manner, opposing [his] pro-life ideals and without warning tackled him into a large flowerpot," the report added.
It also noted that several witnesses saw the assault unfold, with one telling investigators that the "conversation between the suspect and [victim] was a debate over their ideas about pro-life and pro-choice viewpoints."
Crosby’s attorney Terrell Roberts read a statement in court on behalf his client, saying that the incident demonstrated a "gross disregard for the law and human decency."
"We were in no position to defend ourselves," Crosby wrote, according to The Baltimore Banner. "To treat elderly folks with that kind of brutality is shocking."