A Virginia man charged with attacking men he believed to be gay while posing as a police officer has been acquitted.
On September 27, a U.S. District Court jury in Washington D.C. found 50-year-old Michael Thomas Pruden not guilty on five counts of assault on federal land, one count of impersonating a federal officer, and a hate crimes sentencing designation, the Washington Blade reported.
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Fake cop allegedly attacked gay & bi men with a chemical
Michael Thomas Pruden allegedly shined a light into his victims’ eyes, shouted “police style” orders at them, then attacked with a chemical.
According to a federal indictment handed down in June 2022, Pruden frequented D.C.’s Meridian Hill Park – which is reportedly a well-known cruising spot for men seeking sex with other men – after nightfall on multiple occasions. Federal prosecutors believe that Pruden sought out men who were cruising other men and approached them with a flashlight that he shined in their faces while giving them “police-style commands, and spraying them with a chemical irritant.”
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Pruden was arrested in July 2022 and charged with attacking five men in the same manner. Victims testified that Pruden identified himself as either a police officer or a park security guard, The Blade reported.
Prosecutors argued that each of the victims who testified at trial had identified Pruden as their attacker when presented with an array of photos that included pictures of other men.
However, Pruden’s lead attorney Alexis Morgan Gardner argued that Pruden had been misidentified by the victims who testified, noting that Pruden himself is a gay man who frequented Meridian Hill Park. Gardner argued that the victims’ testimony conflicted with their statements to police and FBI agents. But prosecutors noted that the victims’ statements were made two years prior and any inconsistencies in their testimony did not change the overall evidence in the case.
This is the second time Pruden has been acquitted of a similar crime. In September 2021, he was found not guilty by a jury in Virginia in a separate case in which prosecutors said he attacked two men in Alexandria’s Daingerfield Island Park, pepper-spraying both and hitting one in the head with a stick after shouting “I’m a cop” and pretending to talk into a police radio. Court records reportedly indicate the Daingerfield Island Park attack occurred five days before the fifth victim in the Meridian Hill Park case was assaulted.
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