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
Murdered Israeli embassy officials were supporters of D.C.’s LGBTQ synagogue
Bet Mishpachah calls fatal shooting outside Capital Jewish Museum ‘devastating’
The two Israeli embassy officials who were shot to death outside D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum Wednesday evening, May 21, were strong supporters of Bet Mishpachah, D.C.’s LGBTQ supportive synagogue, according to a statement it released.
“We are especially devastated by the loss of our dear colleague and friend of Bet Mishpachah, Sarah Milgram, and her soon to be fiancé, Yaron Lischinsky,” the LGBTQ synagogue said in a May 22 statement.
“Sarah was the liaison between Bet Mishpachah and the Israeli Embassy, working closely with our staff and clergy,” the statement says. “Her warmth, professionalism, and deep commitment to building bridges within the Jewish community made her not only a trusted partner but a beloved part of our extended congregational family,” according to the statement.
A statement also released on May 22 by the office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia says Chicago resident Elias Rodriguez, 30, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder along with other weapons related charges in connection with the shooting deaths of Milgram and Lischinsky.
Officials with the D.C. police and the FBI, which has joined D.C. police in continuing to investigate the case, have said Rodriquez arrived in D.C. from Chicago one day prior to the shooting and appears to have targeted an event taking place at the Capital Jewish Museum for violence at the time it was hosting an event called “Young Diplomats Reception,” in which Israeli Embassy officials were in attendance.
Police and FBI officials have said Rodriguez allegedly shot Milgrim and Lischinsky after they left the Capital Jewish Museum at the conclusion of the event. The museum is located at 575 3rd Street, N.W.
“Surveillance footage reportedly shows Rodriquez walking past the victims before turning and firing multiple rounds,” the U.S. Attorney’s statement says. “After the victims fell, he allegedly continued firing at close range, including as one attempted to crawl away,” it says, adding, “Investigators recovered a 9 mm handgun and 21 spent shell casings at the scene.”
Police have said Rodriguez walked into the Capital Jewish Museum after the shooting and was detained by security guards until D.C. police arrived. Witnesses said he began to shout, “free, free Palestine” before police took him into custody.
“Make no mistake, this attack was targeted, antisemitic violence,” said Steven Jenson, an FBI assistant director working on the investigation. “The FBI will continue to pursue all leads and use all available resources to investigate this heinous murder,” he said in the statement.
The fatal shooting took place five days after the Capital Jewish Museum opened a special exhibition called “LGBT Jews in the Federal City” on May 16. “This landmark exhibition explores a turbulent century of celebrations, activism, and change in the nation’s capital by D.C.’s LGBTQ+ Jewish community,” the museum said in a statement announcing the exhibition.
Photos and documents related to Bet Mishpachah make up a prominent part of the exhibition.
During a May 22 press conference organized by the U.S. Attorney for D.C., Jeanine Pirro, to provide an update on the investigation into the two murders, Pirro and FBI official Jensen referred to the two murders as a hate crime and terrorist act.
In response to a question from the Washington Blade asking if investigators were looking into whether the LGBTQ exhibition at the Capital Jewish Museum might have played some role in Gonzales’s motive for targeting the museum, Pirro responded to the question.
“So, we are looking into absolutely everything,” she said. “There is so much information we’re looking at. And I must tell you, coming from New York, I’ve never seen the cooperation and coordination that I’m seeing here. It was immediate. It was instant. It was coordinated. And my hat’s off to this area. We’re going to clean it up, thank you,” she said in ending the press conference.
Josh Maxey, Bet Mishpachah’s executive director, said he and Israeli Embassy official Milgram became friends during their two-and-a-half-year interaction working on joint events between the embassy and Bet Mishpachah.
“This became a wonderful two and a half years journey of putting events together, of hosting events together, doing different programs for the community,” Maxey told the Blade. Among the activities the two worked on, he said, was the embassy’s annual LGBTQ Pride event.
Maxie said his own grieving over the death of Milgram and her boyfriend Lischinsky was heightened by the fact that he spoke with her by phone on the day of the shooting shortly before she arrived at the Jewish Museum over plans about this year’s LGBTQ Pride events.
“Sarah really championed us to be included in Israeli events,” Maxey said. “And so, I am just devastated that this true embodiment of an ally was so viciously and violently taken away from us.”
District of Columbia
Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade
WorldPride organizers announced Thursday that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade.
The Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., revealed the honorees in a press release, noting that each has made a unique contribution to the fabric of the LGBTQ community.
Cox made history in 2014 as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.” She went on to win a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for her documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” which followed seven young trans people as they navigated coming out.
Rapp, a singer and actress who identifies as a lesbian, rose to prominence as Regina George in the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” She reprised the role in the 2024 film adaptation and also stars in Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” portraying a character coming to terms with her sexuality. Rapp has released an EP, “Everything to Everyone,” and an album, “Snow Angel.” She announced her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” on May 21 and is slated to perform at the WorldPride Music Festival at the RFK Festival Grounds.
Deacon Maccubbin, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Washington’s LGBTQ+ history, helped organize D.C.’s first Gay Pride Party in 1975. The event took place outside Lambda Rising, one of the first LGBTQ bookstores in the nation, which Maccubbin founded. For his decades of advocacy and activism, he is often referred to as “the patriarch of D.C. Pride.”
“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”
“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.
The three will march down 14th Street for the WorldPride Parade in Washington on June 7.
District of Columbia
LGBTQ leaders celebrate Frank Kameny’s 100th birthday at Supreme Court
Advocates march, deliver speeches to remember activist’s many contributions
More than 100 people joined the leaders of a dozen prominent national LGBTQ rights organizations on May 21 to celebrate the 100th birthday of iconic D.C. gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court building in the nation’s capital.
Kameny, who passed away on Oct. 11, 2011, on National Coming Out Day, has been hailed as one of the founding leaders of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.
Among other things, he became the first openly gay man to file an appeal about gay rights to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was among the reasons organizers of his birthday celebration chose to hold it at the Supreme Court.
“Today is the 100th birthday of Frank Kameny, the founder of the LGBTQ civil rights movement,” said Malcolm Lazin, who served as national chair of the committee that organized the Kameny 100th birthday event. Frank is one of the nation’s most consequential civil rights leaders,” Lazin told the gathering in opening remarks.
“We are in front of the Supreme Court because Frank believed in the Constitution’s promise of equality for all Americans,” he said. “He based his liberation strategy against systemic homophobia on that promise.”
Participants in the event, many of whom were young LGBTQ activists from New York City, carried 100 candles to commemorate Kameny’s birthday.
They were joined by the national LGBTQ organization leaders who formed a ceremonial picket line carrying replicas of the “homosexual rights” signs used in the 1965 historic first gay protest outside the White House organized by Kameny and his supporters from the Mattachine Society of Washington, a gay rights group that Kameny helped to form.
Among speakers at the event was Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiff in the same-sex marriage lawsuit that resulted in the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. Obergefell noted that the Kameny birthday celebration marks the 10th anniversary of the high court’s marriage decision and recalls for him Kameny’s role as a strong supporter of legalizing same-sex marriage.
Obergefell and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), the Senate’s first openly lesbian member, served as national honorary co-chairs of the Kameny 100th birthday celebration.
Ross Murray, a vice president of GLAAD, told how Kameny used an effective strategy to fight homophobia both for the public and to many in the LGBTQ community who experienced internalized homophobia due to societal pressure.
“So, using the model of ‘Black is Beautiful,’ Frank turned perceptions upside down when he coined ‘Gay is Good,’” Murray said. “And he carried that on a picket sign in 1970 at the first New York Pride Parade.”
Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff told the gathering that the early 1960s era newsletter of the Mattachine Society of Washington, that Kameny helped to start, evolved into the early version of the Washington Blade in 1969.
“Frank recognized the importance of community building and engagement by having a reliable community news source,” Naff said. “We are honored to join in the 100th birthday tribute to one of our founders, Frank Kameny.”
Japer Bowles, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, said the mayor’s office is proud that the city hosted Kameny’s 100th birthday celebration. Bowles announced that Bowser issued an official mayoral proclamation declaring May 21, 2025, Frank Kameny Centennial Day.
In her proclamation Bowser recites many of Kameny’s accomplishments in advancing LGBTQ rights in D.C. and across the nation and concludes by stating she commends “this observance to all Washingtonians with a reminder to always remember, as Frank Kameny often said, ‘Gay is Good.’”
Others who spoke included Keith Joseph of the LGBTQ group Equality Forum, Ben Garcia of the American LGBTQ+ Museum, Saul Levin of the American Psychiatric Association, Kevin Jennings of LGBTQ attorneys’ group Lambda Legal, Elliot Imse of the LGBTQ Victory Institute, Jay Brown of the Human Rights Campaign, Philadelphia City Council member Rue Landau, D.C. Capital Pride Alliance and WorldPride organizer June Crenshaw, Anya Marino of Advocates for Transgender Rights, Sultan Shakir of PFLAG, and Aaron Tax of SAGE.
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), who is gay, was scheduled to speak at the event but had to cancel due to a House committee vote scheduled around the same time, Lazin told the Blade. Rep. Mark Takano, who’s gay, spoke at a lunch after the event to the LGBTQ leaders and praised Kameny’s many contributions to the LGBTQ movement.
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