A Maryland man was arrested on federal hate crime charges after he allegedly posed as a US Park Police officer and assaulted men he believed to be gay in Washington DC.
Michael Thomas Pruden, 48, allegedly carried out the attacks over a three year period, according to the Department of Justice.
Between 2018 and 2021, Mr Pruden allegedly attacked five men on five separate days in Meridian Hill Park — also called Malcolm X Park — in Washington DC. The park is "informally known ... as a meeting place for men seeking consensual sex with other men" at night, according to the Department of Justice,.
Mr Pruden approached men he believed to be gay under the guise of a Park Police officer and allegedly shined a light in their faces before giving them "police-style directives" and spraying them with pepper spray, prosecutors said.
The Justice Department determined that at least four of the men were assaulted specifically because of their "actual or perceived sexual orientation."
Mr Pruden was arrested on Thursday in Norfolk, Virginia, approximately four hours south of Washington DC.
According to The New York Times, a woman who refused to identify herself answered when reporters called to speak to Mr Pruden. She said he was innocent and was unsure if he had hired a lawyer.
He is being charged with five counts of assault on federal land, one count of impersonating a federal office, and will also face hate crimes sentencing enhancing four of the assaults.
If convicted, Mr Pruden faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years for every assault count, and a three-year statutory maximum sentence for impersonating a federal officer. As per the Justice Department, the "hate crimes sentencing enhancement increases the range of the potential sentence for the assault counts."
Prior to this arrest, Mr Pruden also faced an assault charge for allegedly assaulting someone on Daingerfeld Island in Alexandria, Virginia. He was ultimately acquitted of those charges last August. In that incident he was accused of spraying an individual with pepper spray and striking them with a tree limb.
Mr Pruden was formerly a fourth-grade teacher.
