A judge acquitted a Baltimore man on charges of first-degree assault after he attacked two elderly pro-life men over two years ago. He had previously been found guilty on several other second-degree assault charges.
Key Takeaways:
- In May of 2023, Patrick Brice attacked 84-year-old Mark Schaefer and 73-year-old Mark Crosby outside a Baltimore Planned Parenthood.
- Both men were injured, but Crosby particularly so, suffering a shattered eye socket and plate bone in his cheek, two fractured fingers, severe head trauma, and temporary blindness in one eye.
- Brice was arrested in 2024, and in February of 2025, was found guilty of two counts of second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. A jury failed to reach a verdict on another charge of first-degree felony assault, relating to the attack on Crosby, and acquitted the first-degree felony assault charge for the attack on Schaefer.
- Circuit Judge Yvette M. Bryant acquitted Brice on the first-degree felony assault charge, saying he might have been provoked and that there was no proof he intended to cause serious injury.
The Details:
The Baltimore Banner reported that Bryant acknowledged that Crosby suffered serious, permanent injury. Yet she also argued that his medical records somehow proved they weren’t too bad, saying he occasionally ignored directions from medical staff. She also criticized Crosby for his behavior on the witness stand, saying he was too argumentative with both prosecutors and defense attorneys, which therefore made him unreliable.
“This is sort of the experience today in testifying: ‘I’m in control,’” Bryant said. “He seems to be a person who’s at the ready.”
Considering it was Brice, and not Crosby, on trial, Bryant’s complaints seemed irrelevant to the issue at hand, and she appeared to be blaming the victim. After studying the surveillance footage, she said Crosby might not just have run to help Schaefer, but to intentionally join the fight.
She also said that while nothing justified Brice’s attack, she didn’t agree that it was unprovoked.
Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Sudberry, however, argued otherwise. “It was intentional,” Sudberry said. “It was not justified. This is not about what the defendant thinks in hindsight.”
Brice’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Matthew Connell, tried to downplay the severity of what Brice did, describing it as “hasty and impulsive,” and attempted to justify it by saying that Brice “wasn’t thinking.”
The Backstory:
When the attack took place, Schaefer and Crosby were praying outside the Planned Parenthood facility. Brice, allegedly an escort for Planned Parenthood, attacked them.
According to one witness, the attack was unprovoked.
“He didn’t like their opinion or what was being said. The gentleman just took it into his own hands,” one witness said. “He speared the one gentleman over that flowerpot into the window and knocked him out. He was out cold for several minutes.”
According to one pro-life advocate who was present on the scene, John Roswell, Brice even told one of the other escorts to hold his drink before attacking the men.
Brice first went after Schaefer, knocking him to the ground. Surveillance footage did not capture any audio, but it can clearly be seen that Schaefer made no move in Brice’s direction before he was attacked.
That footage was later released by the Baltimore Police Department in an effort to identify the assailant, later revealed to be Brice.
After Schaefer is thrown to the ground in the video, Crosby is seen running in Brice’s direction. Again, while there is no audio, his arms are not raised and he does not appear to attempt to strike Brice at any time.
Brice, however, knocks Crosby to the ground, punches him, and — as Crosby is lying motionless on sidewalk — kicks him in the face.
Brice will be sentenced in August, but in the meantime, remains free on his own recognizance.
The Bottom Line:
Despite being the victim of a horrific crime, Crosby being treated as if he could have somehow done something to deserve the appalling attack. “He should be in jail right now,” Crosby previously said. “It’s just truly amazing: I feel like I’m the criminal.”
