Ex-elementary school teacher, 48, faces federal hate crime charges for “posing as a police officer and spraying pepper spray in the faces of five gay men in DC”.
- Michael Thomas Pruden, 48, is accused of pepper spraying five men after dark at Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcolm X Park
- The park is known as a “cruising” spot for men seeking sex with other men
- Pruden pretended to be a police officer before assaulting the men on various occasions from 2018 to 2021, the Justice Department claimed in an indictment
- Pruden was initially investigated in connection with attacks on Daingerfeld Island in Alexandria but was acquitted last August, WUSA9 reported
- At the time of this arrest, Pruden was a fourth grade teacher in Maryland
A Maryland The former elementary school teacher has been charged with biased assault after he allegedly posed as a police officer to attack gay men in a Washington park direct current.
Michael Thomas Pruden, 48, is accused of pepper spraying five men after dark at Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcolm X Park, known as a “cruising” spot for men seeking consensual sex with other men.
Pruden pretended to be a police officer before assaulting the men on various occasions from 2018 to 2021, the Justice Department claimed in an indictment.
He was arrested Thursday and charged with five counts of assault on federal land, impersonating a federal officer and an augmentation of hate crime convictions.
Pruden faces a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years for any assault and a maximum statutory sentence of three years for impersonating a federal agent.
Improving hate crime sentencing increases the range of potential punishment for attack counts.
Michael Thomas Pruden, 48, is accused of pepper spraying five men at Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcolm X Park, after dark
Pruden pretended to be a police officer before assaulting the men on various occasions from 2018 to 2021, the Justice Department claimed in an indictment
The DOJ said Pruden was arrested on in Norfolk, Virginia.
An indictment presented by a grand jury late last month and unsealed Thursday says that Pruden “pretended to be a park cop, shined a flashlight in the face of victims and gave police-style instructions to victims.”
The US Park Police and the FBI’s Washington branch coordinated the investigation.
Pruden was initially investigated in connection with attacks on the island of Daingerfeld in Alexandria, but was acquitted last August, according to the local news channel WUSA9 reported.
An indictment, returned by a grand jury late last month and unsealed Thursday, says Pruden “pretended to be a park cop, shined a flashlight in the face of victims, and gave police-style instructions to victims.”
In this case Pruden had been charged an attack with intent to cause bodily harm for allegedly using a branch and pepper spray to attack a person.
“In the DC cases, each of the victims was an assault[ed] with pepper spray, some victims were hit with a flashlight (as opposed to a tree branch on Daingerfeld Island), and the attacker often claimed to be a police officer,” assistant attorney Christopher R. Cooke wrote in the filing at the time.
“The victims of these attacks clearly identified the accused as their attacker.”
At the time of the arrest, Pruden was a fourth grade teacher at an elementary school, WUSA reported.
