Patrick Brice sentenced to home detention for attacks on elderly pro-life supporters

Baltimore Circuit Judge Yvette M. Bryant sentenced Patrick Brice Aug. 7 to one-year home detention and three years’ probation for his attack on two pro-life advocates.

Mark Crosby was 73 and Richard Schaefer was 84 when they were attacked by Brice May 26, 2023, outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Baltimore. While Schaefer was knocked over and suffered scrapes and bruises, Crosby suffered permanent eye damage and spent time at Maryland Shock Trauma after being pushed, punched and kicked by Brice.

A jury found Brice guilty on two counts of second-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment Feb. 6. He was found not guilty of first-degree assault charges on Schaefer, and the jury was undecided on the first-degree assault charge on Crosby. Bryant found Brice not guilty of the first-degree assault charge during a retrial June 25.

“The big problem here was when the judge found this guy not guilty of first degree assault. It’s outrageous,” Terrell Roberts III, a local attorney with Roberts & Wood based in Riverdale, said Aug. 8. “My fellow came to the aid of his friend. That is what he was doing. He (Brice) kicked him in the head and did severe damage to this guy’s right eye.”

Roberts was retained to aid Crosby by the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based nonprofit that defends pro-life demonstrators.

Roberts, who had been seeking prison time for the attacker, said Brice’s conduct “warrants and deserves a stiffer sentence.” 

At the sentencing, Brice said he was “real sorry” and that “he flew off the handle because of some type of racial remark made by Dick Schaefer,” according to Roberts.

“I know Dick Schaefer and he is not that kind of guy,” Roberts said. “It is unfortunate.”

Crosby was not available for comment. In a previous interview with the Catholic Review, he said he planned to continue his pro-life work outside the same Planned Parenthood facility where he was assaulted.

“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,” Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of Thomas More Society, said in a written statement after the sentencing. “Justice was not served in this case, and we must continue to fight until all peaceful pro-life voices are protected.”

Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org

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