A 28-year-old man found guilty of brutally beating two elderly pro-life activists outside of a Baltimore Planned Parenthood clinic in 2023 will not spend any time in prison.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Yvette M. Bryant on Thursday sentenced Patrick Brice to a year of home detention and three years of probation after prosecutors requested a 10-year sentence for two counts of second-degree assault and reckless endangerment, the Baltimore Banner reported.
“What about my rights and my well-being?” one of the victims of the attack, Mark Crosby, shouted at Bryant as she left the bench. Crosby was 73 years old at the time of the May 26, 2023, assault.
Brice said he had intended to debate Richard Shaefer, the other victim — who was 84 at the time — outside of the Planned Parenthood. Brice said he became enraged after Schaefer made what he believed to be a racial remark, an accusation Schaefer denies. Surveillance video of the incident shows Brice tackling Schaefer into a flower pot and then tackling Crosby who had run over to assist, before punching and kicking him in the face.
“I just snapped one day,” Brice reportedly said in court before apologizing to the men, per The Baltimore Banner.
Schafer refused medical attention after the attack, but Crosby spent three days at Maryland Shock Trauma Center and had to go back to the emergency room twice, according to the report. Crosby suffered several injuries, including an orbital fracture, and he now has permanent damage to his right eye.
Brice must complete anger management as part of his sentence, as well as regular therapy and drug and alcohol screenings.
“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,” President and Chief Counsel of the conservative law firm Thomas More Society Tom Brejcha 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 continued.
Posted by Maryland Right to Life on Tuesday, May 30, 2023
Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Suberry had urged the judge to more harshly sentence Brice to “send a message…that attacking two older men in broad daylight on the street in Baltimore for their religious or political views will not be tolerated,” according to the report.
Terrell Roberts, Crosby’s attorney, read a statement on his behalf saying the assault showed a “gross disregard for the law and human decency.”
Crosby’s attorney, Terrell Roberts, read a lengthy statement on his behalf in which he wrote that the attack demonstrated a “gross disregard for the law and human decency.”
“We were in no position to defend ourselves,” Crosby reportedly wrote. “To treat elderly folks with that kind of brutality is shocking.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
Read the full article here