A Baltimore man convicted of brutally assaulting two elderly pro-life activists will not spend a single day in prison thanks to a judge who, as one of the victims’ attorneys put it, “gave [the perpetrator] all the slack in the world.”
Patrick Brice, 28, was convicted in February on two counts of second-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment for the May 2023 incident outside an abortion clinic. His victims, then-73-year-old Mark Crosby and then-84-year-old Richard Schaefer, were peacefully standing near the clinic, offering to talk and pray with women contemplating abortion.
According to the Daily Wire:
The attack was captured on surveillance video that shows Schaeffer [sic] and Brice engaging in a heated argument outside of the downtown Baltimore Planned Parenthood facility. The video then shows Brice tackling Schaeffer into a potted plant. Crosby, who was standing across the street, then runs over, and Brice pushes him to the ground. Brice then straddles Crosby and punches him in the face before standing up and kicking him in the head.
The police report of the incident indicated that the responding officers found Crosby with “a large lump forming on his right eyebrow and blood and swelling around the right eye and right side of his face,” reported Baltimore’s WJZ-TV.
After the assault, Crosby spent three days at a shock trauma center and returned to the emergency room twice. The Daily Wire elaborated:
Crosby was treated for a fractured bone in his face, blindness in one eye, head and neck pain, two fractured fingers, and bruising on his arms and legs. Crosby says that the attack left him with photophobia, meaning he has to cover his right eye on sunny days and from very bright lights.
Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, which represented Crosby, told LifeNews.com:
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.
The Baltimore City Office of the State’s Attorney vigorously prosecuted Brice and sought stiff penalties for his crimes, saying such punishment would convey a “strong message of deterrence” against similar assaults in the future. Combined, Brice’s four convictions could have landed him in jail for 30 years and subjected him to $15,000 in fines.
The state also charged Brice with two counts of first-degree assault. A jury acquitted him of one count and hung on the second, so prosecutors requested a retrial.
That retrial was heard by Baltimore City Circuit Judge Yvette Bryant, who was clearly in Brice’s corner. That did not surprise Crosby in the least.
“Baltimore City is criminal-friendly. It’s not victim-friendly at all, especially if you’re a senior,” he told the Daily Wire. “Judges do not like pro-lifers.”
According to The Baltimore Banner, “Bryant said she had no doubt that Crosby suffered serious, protracted and permanent injuries. But the issue in the case, she said, was intent.” Because Crosby could be a bit cantankerous in the hospital and in court, Bryant
concluded that the footage could be interpreted in two ways.
Either Crosby was running over to fight, she said, or rushing to help his friend.
Bryant said she agreed that the assault was not justified. But she said she disagreed with the characterization that the attack was unprovoked.
Brice’s attorney, naturally, played to this line of reasoning, saying his client had no intention of causing serious injuries when he attacked the two pro-lifers. He even suggested that Schaefer had made a racist comment to provoke the assault.
Brice testified that he “was having a bad day” when he attacked the men and said he was “sorry” for having hurt them.
Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Sudberry, however, contended that Brice knew exactly what he was doing at the time, saying his actions were “intentional” and “not justified.”
“This is not about what the defendant thinks in hindsight,” she said.
Nevertheless, Bryant — who had not permitted Crosby to show photographs of his injured face in court — acquitted Brice of the first-degree assault charges.
Then, when it came time to sentence him for the charges on which he had been convicted, she was extremely lenient, noted the Daily Wire:
Bryant sentenced him [Thursday] to one year of home detention, which means he will be allowed to travel for work or medical purposes. He will get three years of probation after that and cannot go near an abortion facility or pro-life clinic as well.
LifeNews.com added that Bryant further ordered Brice “to complete anger management classes, undergo drug and alcohol screening, and remain in therapy.”
Sadly, no one was shocked by the outcome of either the trial or the sentencing.
“Justice was not served in this case,” Crosby’s lawyer, Terrell Roberts, told the Daily Wire. “Sentencing, I thought, would end up right where it was because they were going to give them all the slack in the world.”
Although they were disappointed by Brice’s punishment, Crosby and Schaefer say they’re going to keep showing up outside Planned Parenthood, as indeed they have done since the attack.
Crosby, a Catholic, told the Daily Wire that “the day he was beaten was ‘the most glorious’ of his life and that he was happy to shed his own blood and suffer for Jesus.”