Baltimore Circuit Judge Yvette M. Bryant acquitted 28-year-old Patrick Brice of first-degree assault in the violent beating of 73-year-old pro-life advocate Mark Crosby outside a Baltimore Planned Parenthood facility in 2023, despite video evidence and severe injuries.
Brice was previously convicted by a jury in February of two counts of second-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment for the May 2023 attack on Crosby and fellow pro-lifer Dick Schafer, 84.
The Baltimore Banner reported that jurors decided to acquit Brice of a charge of first-degree assault against Schafer but weren’t unanimous regarding whether he should be found guilty of first-degree assault against Crosby, so prosecutors pursued a retrial on that charge.
The two elderly men had been peacefully praying and offering support to women outside the abortion facility when Brice launched his unprovoked assault.
According to police reports and video footage, Brice first tackled Schafer into a concrete flowerpot, then struck Crosby down and kicked him in the head.
Crosby suffered a fractured orbital bone, a ruptured eye globe, and permanent damage that leaves his pupil dilated and intolerant to light. Physicians say the injuries amount to a permanent disability. Schafer suffered scrapes and a shoulder injury.
In a June 27 statement reviewed by CatholicVote, Crosby’s attorney, Terrell N. Roberts III, called the judge’s ruling a “miscarriage of justice.”
“This was a miscarriage of justice that should never have happened,” Roberts said. “It was founded on a simple error of failing to apply Maryland law correctly. A first degree assault is committed when a person intentionally causes serious physical injury to another person. Here there was no dispute that Brice caused a serious physical injury to Mark Crosby.”
Roberts said the judge’s decision rested on a claim that Crosby may have “provoked” Brice by attempting to assist Schafer during the attack.
“For anyone to conclude as the Judge did that Crosby’s action was legally adequate provocation is absurd… The Judge was plainly wrong and misapplied the law,” Roberts said. “She should have known better.”
