Jury acquits man on all counts in attacks targeting gay men in Meridian Hill Park

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Jury acquits man on all counts in attacks targeting gay men in Meridian Hill Park

Michael Thomas Pruden, of Norfolk, was found not guilty of all charges following two days of deliberations.

Author: Jordan Fischer
Published: 5:05 PM EDT September 27, 2024
Updated: 5:05 PM EDT September 27, 2024

WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury acquitted a Virginia man on all counts against him Friday in connection to a series of attacks targeting gay men in D.C.’s Meridian Hill Park in 2021. … Jurors deliberated across two days before returning a not guilty verdict on all six counts against Michael Thomas Pruden, 50, of Norfolk. A seventh count was dismissed by the government last week prior to the beginning of trial.

Pruden was indicted in July 2022 on multiple counts of assault and impersonating a federal officer, along with a hate crimes enhancement. At the time, federal investigators claimed between April 2018 and March 2021 Pruden had attacked at least five different men with pepper spray in Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcom X Park, near 16th and U Streets in D.C.

Prosecutors said the park is informally known as a “cruising” spot for gay men and alleged the crimes were motivated by anti-gay bias. … According to the indictment, the suspect in that case had approached victims with a flashlight, given “police-style commands” and then sprayed them with a chemical irritant.

Friday’s verdict marks the second time Pruden, a former Maryland elementary school teacher, has been acquitted of assaults in the D.C. area. In 2021, Pruden was charged in connection with an alleged assault at Daingerfeld Island in Alexandria. An indictment returned by a federal grand jury in that case accused Pruden of one count of assault with the intent to do bodily harm for allegedly attacking another person with pepper spray and a tree branch. A jury in the Eastern District of Virginia acquitted Pruden on that count in August of that same year. … Pruden was represented by assistant federal public defenders Alexis Morgan Gardner and Courtney Millian from the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Columbia.

[OldBaldy1701E]

1. One step forward... five steps back.

It isn't the exception', it is the rule. Until that changes, all of the LGBTQA people in this nation are in danger.

[stopdiggin]

2. would sure like to know what the testimony

(and jury deliberation?) sounded like in this case. Regardless, it's almost impossible to place the blame here anywhere else than on a jury that refused to be persuaded ... Police did their job. Prosecutors did their job ...

[catrose]

3. Why?

Prosecutor wouldn’t have brought the case without evidence.
Would he?
Why would a jury ignore evidence?
3 times
Are there that many homophobes in the jury pool?

[CuriousGeorge17]

4. I was present

I was present at this trial. The police conducted very sloppy witness interviews and provided almost no other evidence on the man. They absolutely did not meet the burden of proof for a conviction.

The real question that should be asked is why the police did not collect what would have been common sense evidence from witnesses, call witnesses they were expected to call or adhere to best practices with their witness interviews.

No jury would have convicted this man in the evidence submitted.