District of Columbia
Man charged with assaulting gay men in D.C.’s Meridian Hill Park acquitted
Defense lawyer argued victims misidentified defendant
A U.S. District Court jury in D.C. on Sept. 27 found a Virginia man not guilty of multiple charges that he assaulted five men, four of whom he believed to be gay, with pepper spray between 2018 and 2021 in D.C.’s Meridian Hill Park, which is also known as Malcolm X Park.
The verdict came a little over two years after a federal grand jury handed down an indictment charging Michael Thomas Pruden, 50, with five counts of assault on federal park land, one count of impersonating a federal officer, and a hate crime designation alleging that he assaulted four of the men because of their perceived sexual orientation.
The indictment states, and witnesses at the trial testified, that Meridian Hill Park is well known as a “cruising” place where men seek out other men for consenting sexual encounters during nighttime hours.
“Michael Thomas Pruden frequented Meridian Hill Park after nightfall on multiple occasions, including those described below, assaulted men in Meridian Hill Park by approaching them with a flashlight, giving them police-style commands, and spaying them with a chemical irritant,” the indictment states. The indictment was handed down by a federal grand jury on June 29, 2022.
Court records show that Pruden was arrested two weeks later on July 14, 2022, in Norfolk, Va., where he was living at that time. Records show he had been living in Oxon Hill, Md., at the time he allegedly committed the assaults in Meridian Hill Park.
Reports surfaced at the time of Pruden’s arrest that he is a former Maryland elementary school teacher.
Pruden’s lead attorney, Alexis Morgan Gardner, who is an assistant federal public defender, argued during the trial that Pruden himself is a gay man who regularly visited Meridian Hill Park. She told the jury that Pruden was misidentified as the perpetrator in the attacks by each of the victims who testified that they recognized Pruden as their attacker.
The two lead prosecutors in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Cherry and Timothy Visser, argued that each of the victims who testified at the trial identified Pruden as the person who sprayed them with pepper spray after shining a flashlight in their eyes. The prosecutors pointed out that during an investigation of the assaults by the U.S. Park Police, each of the victims identified Pruden from an array of photos that included photos of several other men and Pruden.
The prosecutors noted that Meridian Hill Park is among the federal parks in D.C. that U.S. Park Police oversee.
The victims testified that their attacker identified himself as a police officer or a security guard and gave them police-like commands to leave the park on grounds that it is closed to the public after nightfall.
But during intense cross examination of the victims on the witness stand, Gardner argued that each of their accounts of the attacks during their trial testimony conflicted with statements they made to police or FBI agents, who also became involved in the investigation, at the time they were interviewed by either police or the FBI during the investigation.
At one point during Gardner’s questioning one of the victims, Carl Williams, Williams yelled at Gardner, angrily saying he believed the police reports of his account of what happened were inaccurate in some of the details and that his statements during his trial testimony were the correct version of what happened at the park on the night he says he was assaulted by Pruden.
“I’m not sure what I may have said,” he told Gardner while testifying. “I did not say it the way it was written,” he said, referring to a police report that Gardner told the jury had conflicting information from what Williams said when he was questioned by one of the prosecutors on the witness stand.
Gardner also pointed out that Williams himself has been charged and convicted of violating park rules at Meridian Hill Park by going there at night when it was legally “closed’ to the public.
The jury’s verdict came on the second day of its deliberations and after U.S. District Court Judge Jia M. Cobb instructed the jury that, as in all criminal cases, they should not render a verdict of guilt unless they believe the evidence presented by the government proved the defendant committed the crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.
Pruden’s acquittal on Sept. 27 marked the second time he has been acquitted by a jury in a trial on charges that he targeted gay men for assault in a park.
In September 2021, a U.S. District Court jury in Alexandria, Va., found him not guilty of a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon for allegedly pepper spraying and striking in the head with a tree branch a man in Daingerfield Island park in Alexandria. That park is also known as a gay male cruising site.
Federal court records in Virginia show that the Daingerfield Island assault took place on March 21, 2021, five days before the D.C. grand jury indictment against Prudent says he allegedly assaulted the fifth victim in the Meridian Hill Park attacks on March 26, 2021.
During the trial in the Meridian Hill case, Cherry and Visser argued that any inconsistencies between the testimony by the victims and their statements to police investigators two years or more earlier did not change the overall evidence that proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Pruden committed each of the offenses he was charged with.
The jury’s decision to acquit Pruden on all charges indicates jurors believed Gardner and co-defense attorney Courtney Millian from the Office of the Federal Public Defender for D.C. provided sufficient evidence that prosecutors did not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Gardner did not respond to a request from the Washington Blade for comment on the jury’s verdict.
Although the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. almost always issues a press release announcing a jury conviction in cases that it prosecutes, in this case spokesperson Patricia Hartman said no statement would be released.
“We respect the jury’s decision,” Hartman told the Blade.
District of Columbia
LGBT exhibition at D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum opens May 16
‘LGBT Jews in the Federal City’ arrives for WorldPride and beyond
The D.C. Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum is opening a special exhibition called “LGBT Jews in the Federal City” on Friday, May 16, that will remain at the museum at 575 3rd St., N.W. until Jan. 4, 2026.
Museum officials have said they are pleased that the LGBT exhibition will be open concurrently with WorldPride 2025 D.C., which takes place May 17-June 8. The exhibition also takes place during Jewish American Heritage Month in May and during LGBTQ Pride Month in June, the museum points out in a statement.
“This landmark exhibition explores a turbulent century of celebration, activism, and change in the nation’s capital led by D.C.’s LGBTQ+ Jewish community,” the museum statement says. “This is a local story with national resonance, turning the spotlight on Washington, D.C. to show the city’s vast impact on LGBTQ+ history and culture in the United States.”
LGBT Jews in the Federal City includes “more than 100 artifacts and photographs representing the DMV region’s Jewish LGBTQ+ celebrations, spaces, struggles, joys, and personal stories,” the stamen points out.
A pre-opening tour of the exhibition provided for the Washington Blade shows that among the displays are first-ever shown materials from Bet Mishpachah, D.C.’s LGBTQ supportive synagogue, which is the nation’s fourth-oldest LGBTQ friendly synagogue.
Also included is a prominent display about Barrett Brick, a longtime D.C. LGBT rights advocate and Jewish community leader who served as a board member and president of Bet Mishpachah in the 1980s and as executive director of the World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jewish organizations from 1987 to 1992. Brick passed away following a 10-year battle with cancer in 2013.
Another display in the museum’s several rooms accommodating the exhibition includes the ability to listen to audio clips of local LGBTQ community members sharing in their own voices their oral histories provided by D.C.’s Rainbow History Project.
Other displays include campaign posters and photos of prominent gay rights icon Frank Kameny, who led efforts to end discrimination against LGBTQ people from the federal government; and a panel from the AIDS Memorial Quilt that includes the name of a prominent Jewish Washingtonian who died during the AIDS epidemic.
“Through prompts, questions, and thoughtful design throughout the exhibition, visitors will be encouraged to ponder new ways to understand Jewish teachings and values as they relate to gender and sexuality,” the museum’s statement says.
“After leaving the exhibition, visitors can contribute to the Museum’s collecting and storytelling by sharing photographs, personal archives, or by recording stories,” it says.
The museum is open for visitors to see the LGBT exhibition and other museum exhibits 10 a.m. through 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Admission to LGBT Jews in the Federal City is $12.
District of Columbia
Rainbow History Project WorldPride exhibition to open May 18
‘Pickets, Protests and Parades’ to be on display at Freedom Plaza
D.C.’s Rainbow History Project is scheduled to open its WorldPride 2025 exhibition called “Pickets, Protests, and Parades: The History of Gay Pride in Washington” on Sunday, May 18, in Freedom Plaza.
Located on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. between 13th and 14th streets less than three blocks from the White House, the exhibition will be open to the public free of charge for 24 hours through July 6.
The exhibition “will chronicle the local LGBTQ+ Pride movement and how the pickets and protests of the 1960s led to the vibrant celebrations of the 2020s,” a statement released by Rainbow History Project says.
The statement notes that the exhibition’s displays will include photos and information about a 1965 protest in front of the White House by 10 gay men and lesbians carrying picket signs in what is believed to be one of the city’s and possibly the nation’s first public demonstrations in support of the then homosexual community.
“The exhibition disrupts the popularly held belief that the LGBTQ+ rights movement began with the Stonewall Riots in 1969 in New York,” the statement points out. It says the 1965 gay protest outside the White House, which took place four years before Stonewall, represents “the start of D.C.’s rich queer history.”
“Covering 1965 to the present, the exhibition explores the history of Pride in D.C. in 10 distinct thematic eras,” according to the statement. “Large hero images around the perimeter will draw people into the exhibit to explore a timeline wall with historic quotes from Pride’s organizers. Each of the 10 eras are detailed in thematic cubes rich with history and visuals.”
The statement says Rainbow History Project is seeking community members to serve as Exhibit Monitors to assist in operating the display in four shifts each day and night to be compensated from between $80 and $100 per shift depending on the time of the shift.
Information about applying to become an exhibit monitor can be accessed at Rainbow History’s website.
District of Columbia
Jeanine Pirro has mixed record on LGBTQ rights in N.Y.
Trump pick for interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. under fire
Jeanine Pirro, the controversial Fox News host and commentator appointed by President Donald Trump on May 8 to become interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia has a little-noticed record of partial support for gay rights while mostly opposing transgender rights.
She expressed support for gay rights during her tenure as a prosecutor and candidate for public office in New York State beginning in 2000, media reports show.
According to news media reports at that time in New York, Pirro actively supported the approval by the New York State Legislature of a hate crimes law that included sexual orientation as a protected class in 2000. Press reports show she also spoke out in support for anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people during her unsuccessful election campaign for State Attorney General in 2006.
Although she supported civil unions rather than legal marriage for same-sex couples, Pirro spoke out strongly against a proposed federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, press reports show. However, media reports also show she supported the federal Defense of Marriage Act passed by Congress, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Reports show that in 2006 she acknowledged participating in both a Pride parade and a fundraising event organized by Log Cabin Republicans, the LGBTQ GOP group.
Other media reports show that Pirro called on the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to ban transgender women from competing in women’s sports
“Women are being condemned, disavowed, and erased by allowing transgender women to compete with biological women in sports,” she stated on one of her Fox News talk shows. “This is the ultimate elimination and subjugation of women in our society,” she stated on that show.
In his decision to appoint Pirro as Acting U.S. Attorney for D.C., which by law is a temporary position, Trump has not said whether he plans to nominate Pirro for the permanent D.C. U.S. Attorney position.
Trump’s decision to name Pirro as acting U.S. Attorney came after congressional Democrats as well as some Republicans made it clear they would not support Ed Martin, Trump’s earlier appointment as acting D.C. U.S. Attorney for the permanent U.S. Attorney position.
The Washington Post reports that congressional Democrats have raised strong concerns about Pirro’s ability to serve as D.C.’s U.S. Attorney based, among other things, on her controversial statements as a Fox News talk show host.
The Post reports that she was among the Republicans who disputed the 2020 presidential election results, noting she was named as one of the Fox News commentator defendants in a defamation lawsuit filed by a company producing voting machines that accused Pirro and others with making false statements that faulty voting machines played a role in Trump receiving fewer votes than he actually received when he lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Congressional Democrats are also raising questions about whether Pirro has sufficient experience to serve as U.S. Attorney based on her past role as three-term Westchester County, N.Y. District Attorney, the Post reports. The Democrats reportedly are claiming Pirro lacks experience as a prosecutor in federal cases, which the D.C. U.S. Attorney prosecutes as well as local D.C. cases.
Trump, in a social media post, called Pirro a “powerful crusader for victims of crime.” Several prominent Republican U.S. senators also expressed strong support for Pirro’s appointment.
“Jeanine Pirro has had a long and storied career as a prosecutor, and she is a great choice by [Trump] to serve as U.S. Attorney for D.C.,” the Post quoted Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) as saying.
Pirro served as a judge in Westchester County, which is a suburb of New York City, before being elected as the county’s district attorney in 1993. She held that position until 2005, when she announced her GOP candidacy for New York’s U.S. Senate seat held then by Democrat Hillary Clinton, which was up for election in 2006.
The Post and other media outlets report conservative Republican leaders pressured Pirro to drop out of the U.S. Senate race on grounds that her moderate positions on a number of issues, including her support for a woman’s right to choose an abortion, would alienate conservative voters.
After withdrawing her candidacy for the Senate, Pirro became a candidate for the New York State Attorney General’s position.
She won the GOP nomination for that position and emerged, according to political observers, as a true “moderate” Republican on issues including her support for LGBTQ rights protections in employment and LGBTQ-inclusive hate crimes laws. In November 2006 Pirro lost the election to Democrat Andrew Cuomo.
Among the issues that hurt her campaign, media reports show, was her former husband’s conviction in 2000 on federal conspiracy and tax evasion charges following his tenure as Trump’s real estate attorney.
He was sentenced to 29 years in prison but served just 11 years before Trump pardoned him at the end of the last year of Trump’s first term as president. According to media reports, Jeanine Pirro lobbied Trump to pardon her ex-husband.
Wikipedia reports that in 2013 Pirro interviewed on her talk show William Owens, an official with the anti-LGBTQ National Organization for Marriage, which opposed same-sex marriage. But the Wikipedia write-up doesn’t say whether Pirro expressed her own views on that subject during the interview.
However, Wikipedia reports that in 2021 Pirro attended Log Cabin Republicans’ Spirit of Lincoln Gala, the group’s largest annual fundraising event.
Andrew Minik, president of Log Cabin Republicans of D.C., said the LGBTQ GOP group strongly supports President Trump’s decision to appoint Pirro as interim U.S. Attorney for D.C.
“Judge Pirro is a longtime friend and ally of Log Cabin Republicans, a fierce advocate for law enforcement officers, and defender of the rule of law,” Minik told the Blade in a statement. “Her appointment marks a turning point in restoring order and ending the culture of leniency that has put D.C. residents at risk,” he said.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest national LGBTQ advocacy organization, considers Pirro’s appointment “a slap in the face of justice,” according to Brandon Wolf, the group’s national press secretary.
“Given her insulting comments about transgender people, the people of D.C. cannot count on Pirro to protect the rights of all of our residents and visitors,” Wolf said in a statement to the Blade.
“As U.S. Attorney, she would be responsible for prosecuting hate crimes and civil rights violations but based on her time as a Fox News talking head, she can be expected to advance the administration’s anti-LGBTQ+ agenda, including non-enforcement of critical civil rights protections,” Wolf said.
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