An elderly pro-life Catholic sidewalk counselor who was brutally beaten outside of a Baltimore Planned Parenthood wants the Trump administration to intervene after his attacker was given a slap on the wrist earlier this year.
Mark Crosby, 75, sent a letter to the Justice Department on Thursday requesting that they “consider prosecution” of the 28-year-old man who assaulted him and 84-year-old Richard Schaefer outside of Planned Parenthood in downtown Baltimore on May 26, 2023. The letter, obtained by The Daily Wire, suggests that their attacker, Patrick Brice, could face federal charges for targeting them based on their religious beliefs.
“The attack is shocking for its violence and brutality and was captured on surveillance video,” Terrell Roberts, a lawyer for Crosby, wrote to Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. “He was [at Planned Parenthood] with another counselor, Dick Schaefer, age 84. They hand out rosaries and religious literature to women and offer religiously based counseling with the goal of preserving the life of the unborn.”
Footage of the May 26 assault shows Brice getting into an argument with Schaefer before tackling the octogenarian into a potted plant and knocking him out. When Crosby runs up to check on Schaefer, Brice throws him to the ground before punching and kicking him in the head.
As a result of the attack, Crosby has photophobia, which is extreme sensitivity to bright lights.
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In August, Brice escaped jail time after Baltimore City Circuit Judge Yvette Bryan sentenced him to just one year of home detention and three years of probation. State prosecutors requested a total of 10 years in prison, asking that the judge send a “strong message of deterrence” against attacking people in broad daylight over their political and religious views.
Brice also dodged a more serious first-degree assault charge in both a jury trial and a bench trial. Bryan acquitted Brice of the charge because she claimed Crosby provoked him by coming to Schaefer’s aid.
“Finding Brice not guilty of a violent felony in the face of overwhelming evidence and showing extraordinary leniency by imposing a sentencing without any imprisonment in the face of the prosecution’s request for a 10-year sentence of imprisonment was a gross miscarriage of justice,” Roberts wrote.
Crosby accuses Brice of ripping off a crucifix he was wearing around his neck at the time of the attack. During sentencing, Brice disputed this and claimed that he had no animosity toward Christians.
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