An elderly pro-life advocate was brutally beaten unconscious outside a Baltimore abortion clinic.
His attacker kicked him in the face while he lay defenseless on the sidewalk.
And the judge who let this Baltimore attacker walk free is covering up something that’ll make your blood boil.
How Baltimore’s Courts Failed Two Faithful Men
Mark Crosby and Dick Schaefer were doing what they’d done hundreds of times before — standing peacefully outside a Baltimore Planned Parenthood on May 26, 2023, offering prayers and hope to women facing difficult decisions.
The two elderly men, ages 73 and 84 respectively, had no idea they were about to become victims of the most vicious anti-Catholic hate crime in Baltimore’s recent history.
Patrick Brice, a 28-year-old Planned Parenthood escort, spotted the peaceful protesters and made a decision that would expose the deep rot in Maryland’s justice system.
Patrick Brice couldn’t stand what he was seeing.
The 28-year-old completely lost it and attacked both men for no reason at all.
The whole thing was caught on camera, and it’s hard to watch.
Brice went after 84-year-old Schaefer first, tackling him right into a concrete planter and knocking him out cold.
That’s when 73-year-old Crosby ran over to help his friend, but Brice wasn’t done.
What Brice Did Next Will Shock You
Crosby never saw it coming.
Brice knocked the 73-year-old to the ground and started hitting him over and over.
Then, while Crosby was lying there helpless, Brice kicked him square in the face like he was trying to score a touchdown.
One witness said it looked "like an NFL player kicking a 50-yard field goal."
The attack left Crosby with a shattered eye socket, damaged eye, and injuries that doctors say he’ll deal with for the rest of his life.
Physicians testified that Crosby’s injuries amount to a permanent disability that will affect him for the rest of his life.
Schaefer suffered scrapes and a shoulder injury from being violently thrown into the concrete planter.
Witness John Roswell testified that Brice actually told another Planned Parenthood escort to "hold his drink" before launching his unprovoked attack on the elderly men.
"He didn’t like their opinion or what was being said. The gentleman just took it into his own hands," one witness explained to police. "He speared the one gentleman over that flowerpot into the window and knocked him out. He was out cold for several minutes."
Police put out the surveillance video hoping someone could tell them who did it.
That’s how they tracked down Brice.
The Judge’s Shocking Decision
Back in February, a jury looked at all the evidence and said Brice was guilty of attacking both men.
They convicted him on two counts of second-degree assault and reckless endangerment.
But they couldn’t agree on whether to hit him with the more serious first-degree assault charge for what he did to Crosby
But the jury couldn’t reach a unanimous decision on whether Brice should face first-degree felony assault charges for his attack on Crosby.
That decision was left to Circuit Judge Yvette M. Bryant in a bench trial on June 25.
Despite clear video evidence showing Brice kicking a defenseless 73-year-old man in the face, Judge Bryant inexplicably acquitted Brice of the felony charge.
Even more shocking was Bryant’s reasoning for the acquittal.
The judge actually blamed Crosby for his own brutal beating, claiming he might have "provoked" Brice by trying to help his 84-year-old friend who had been knocked unconscious.
Bryant criticized Crosby’s behavior on the witness stand, calling him "argumentative" and claiming he was "a person who’s at the ready."
"This is sort of the experience today in testifying: ‘I’m in control,’" Bryant said, apparently more concerned with the victim’s courtroom demeanor than the violent criminal who had permanently disabled him.
Bryant also suggested that Crosby might have been "intentionally" joining the fight rather than helping his elderly friend, despite video evidence clearly showing Crosby never raised his arms or attempted to strike Brice.
Judge Bryant’s Unbelievable Excuse
Here’s where it gets really messed up.
Judge Bryant said she couldn’t convict Brice of the felony because maybe Crosby "provoked" him somehow.
Keep in mind, this is the same Crosby who was lying on the ground getting kicked in the face.
Bryant also complained that Crosby was too "argumentative" when he testified about getting attacked.
Can you believe that?
She’s criticizing the victim for how he acted on the witness stand after some guy nearly blinded him.
Bryant went so far as to suggest the attack wasn’t really "unprovoked," even though the video shows exactly what happened.
Maryland’s legal system just told violent criminals they can get away with attacking Christians as long as they come up with a halfway decent excuse afterward
Crosby’s attorney, Terrell N. Roberts III, called the ruling "a miscarriage of justice that should never have happened."
"It was founded on a simple error of failing to apply Maryland law correctly," Roberts stated. "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 added that Judge Bryant "was plainly wrong and misapplied the law. She should have known better."
Laura Bogley, Executive Director of Maryland Right to Life, didn’t mince words about the state’s systematic discrimination against people of faith.
"The State of Maryland continues to blatantly discriminate against pro-life speech," Bogley stated. "This Court has a duty to apply justice blindly and Judge Bryant has failed in her duty to the citizens and the Constitution."
Federal Authorities Ignore Clear Hate Crime
The injustice extends far beyond Judge Bryant’s courtroom.
The Baltimore City prosecutor’s office refused to charge Brice with a hate crime, despite the clear evidence that he targeted the elderly men specifically because of their religious beliefs and pro-life advocacy.
"This was a violent hate crime and an attack on Catholics and religious freedom everywhere," Bogley explained. "It was a clear violation of the FACE Act, which is to protect pro-life advocates as well as abortion workers."
The FACE Act (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act) was specifically designed to protect both abortion providers and pro-life advocates from violence and intimidation.
Yet federal authorities have remained conspicuously silent while an elderly Catholic man suffers permanent disabilities for the "crime" of praying peacefully outside an abortion clinic.
"Brice should have been charged with a federal crime," Bogley continued. "The victims will not see justice unless this case is removed from the biased bench in the Maryland courts."
Maryland Right to Life has launched an advocacy campaign demanding that Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown and United States Attorney General Pam Bondi provide oversight of the Circuit Court’s biased actions.
The organization previously called on Governor Wes Moore and Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott to condemn the violence when it first occurred in 2023.
Maryland Right to Life tried to get Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to step in and do something about this mess.
They also asked Governor Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott to at least say something when this first happened back in 2023.
But nobody wanted to touch it.
Their silence pretty much tells you everything you need to know about where Maryland stands when it comes to protecting people of faith.
These Two Men Won’t Back Down
You’d think after getting beaten up and then blamed for it by a judge, Mark Crosby might think twice about going back to that same Planned Parenthood.
"It’s just a wonderful feeling when we’re in front of Planned Parenthood and a mother with a baby comes up to us and says, ‘Thank you for ministering to me and that I didn’t have to murder my baby,’" Crosby explained.
Rather than being driven away by the violence and judicial bias, Schaefer and Crosby are encouraging more people to join them in their peaceful witness outside the abortion facility.
"If Jesus asked what we were doing to save the babies, real action is necessary," Crosby said.
Crosby and Schaefer are still out there almost every day, praying and talking to women who need help.
They know Brice is walking around free, and they know the courts won’t protect them if it happens again.
But they keep showing up anyway.
That takes guts.
Pro-life advocates all over the country are watching what happened in Baltimore, and a lot of them are dealing with their own harassment and threats.
This Isn’t Just About Baltimore
What happened to Crosby and Schaefer fits a pattern we’ve been seeing for years.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, there was this weird situation where peaceful pro-life people kept getting arrested while the folks attacking them got a pass.
President Trump’s team had worked hard to make sure religious Americans could exercise their rights without fear.
But then everything flipped.
Judge Bryant’s decision and the prosecutor’s refusal to call this a hate crime show you exactly how the system works now.
If you’re a person of faith trying to live out your beliefs, you’re on your own.
Anyone who cares about religious freedom should be paying attention to this case
When elderly men can be brutally beaten for peacefully praying, and their attacker walks free while judges blame the victims, we have reached a dangerous tipping point in our nation’s history.
The fact that Patrick Brice remains free on his own recognizance while Mark Crosby suffers permanent disabilities tells you everything you need to know about Maryland’s priorities.
Brice is scheduled for sentencing in August on his misdemeanor convictions, but given Judge Bryant’s shocking bias, there’s little reason to expect meaningful consequences for his violent hate crime.
Violence is never an acceptable solution to unplanned pregnancies or to differences in deeply held religious beliefs, yet Maryland’s justice system seems determined to send the opposite message.
Federal authorities need to step up and protect Americans who are just trying to exercise their constitutional rights.
Crosby and Schaefer shouldn’t have to worry about getting attacked for praying on a sidewalk.
What they’re doing takes real courage, especially knowing the courts won’t have their backs.
The pro-life movement has always been about standing up for people who can’t defend themselves.
These two men prove that no amount of violence or judicial bias is going to shut that down.
Eventually, the truth comes out.
But it’s going to take Americans who believe in fairness and religious freedom to demand better from the people in charge.
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