Attacker of Baltimore pro-life advocates found guilty of assault

A jury in Baltimore Circuit Court found Patrick Brice guilty Feb. 6 on two counts of second-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment for attacking two pro-life supporters May 23, 2023, outside a Planned Parenthood facility on North Howard Street in Baltimore. 

The victims, Mark Crosby and Richard Schaefer, had been praying, holding pro-life signs and offering pro-life materials to people entering Planned Parenthood on the day of the assault. The Planned Parenthood facility shares a wall with Options@328, a pro-life pregnancy resource center supported by the Archdiocese of Baltimore. 

Both victims are parishioners of Christ the King in Towson, a Catholic parish of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. The ordinariate is an ecclesial structure similar to a diocese that is dedicated to former Anglican faith communities that have been received into the Catholic Church.

Schaefer, who was 84 at the time, was knocked over a flower pot into a brick wall, while Crosby, who was 73, was pushed, punched and then kicked in the face. While Schaefer suffered scrapes all over and a hurt shoulder, Crosby was sent to Shock Trauma, suffering damage to the right side of his face, including a fractured orbital frontal plate, as well as bruising on his body.

Though he left the scene of the crimes, Brice was identified by police as the main suspect from video taken at the scene. 

The jury split on two more serious charges: Brice was found not guilty on the first-degree assault charge on Schaefer and the jury was undecided for the same first-degree assault charge on Crosby.

During the two-day trial, Assistant State District Attorney Ashley Sudberry called the attacks in her opening remarks “brazen, callous, barbaric behavior.” She emphasized to the jury that neither man knew Brice. While Schaefer and Brice can be heard talking in raised voices in the video of the attack, Schaefer called the conversation “cordial.”

“I was thinking this is going nowhere and I should go back to work,” Schaefer said on the stand. He then said he found himself on the ground. “I couldn’t quite figure out what happened.”

Crosby, who was not part of the conversation between Brice and Schaefer, ran over when he saw Brice tackle Schaefer.

“We’re pro-life, nonviolent,” Crosby said on the stand. “I am not a counselor. All we’re trying to do is say there are options (for pregnant women).”

In an interview with the Catholic Review after the verdict, Crosby took offense at some statements made by Assistant Public Defender Matthew Connell, Brice’s lawyer, during the trial. In his closing remarks, Connell referred to Schaefer and Crosby as “old white men” who view themselves as “religious martyrs” and who say “the most vile things” to women.

Both Crosby and Schaefer are retired and spend five days a week, between 9 and 11 a.m., praying outside the Planned Parenthood facility. Their posters include graphic images of aborted fetuses, which some find offensive. 

“When women and sperm donors look at them (our posters), it makes a difference,” Crosby told the Catholic Review. “Dick (Schaefer) saves so many babies.”

Crosby told the Catholic Review that Brice should have been jailed when he was arrested July 1, 2024, more than a year after the assault. Instead, he was released on his own recognizance. 

On the stand, Connell argued that his client “made a mistake,” while Sudberry countered that “Mr. Brice is a grown man.”

“He is not a child,” Sudberry said. “He knew what he was doing.”

Crosby told the Catholic Review he has received support from the pro-life community throughout his ordeal. While he was in the emergency room at University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, he received what he called a “loving and caring” call from Donald J. Trump, then the former president. He was later Trump’s guest at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Sentencing is scheduled for March 20. It will also be decided at that time if a new trial is needed for the hung count of first-degree assault against Crosby.

“It’s Baltimore City,” Crosby said after the verdicts. “It’s better than nothing.”

Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org

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