WASHINGTON — A Norfolk, Virginia, man was arrested Thursday on federal hate crimes charges linked to multiple assaults at D.C.’s Meridian Hill Park in 2021.
Michael Thomas Pruden was taken into custody in Virginia Beach on five counts of assault on federal land and two counts of impersonating a federal officer. The indictment, returned by a grand jury late last month and unsealed this week, also alleges Pruden targeted his victims because of their perceived sexual orientation.
According to the indictment, investigators believe between April 2018 and March 2021 Pruden attacked at lead five different men with pepper spray in Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcom X Park, near 16th and U Streets in D.C. The indictment notes Meridian Hill Park is informally known as a “cruising” spot for gay men.
“On multiple occasions,” the indictment says, Pruden “assaulted men in Meridian Hill Park by approaching them with a flashlight, giving police-style commands and spraying them with a chemical irritant.”
Pruden was first linked to the attacks last year when he was charged in connection with an assault at Daingerfeld Island in Alexandria. An indictment returned by a federal grand jury in that case last June accused Pruden of one count of assault with the intent to do bodily harm for allegedly attacking another person with pepper spray and a tree branch. A jury in the Eastern District of Virginia acquitted Pruden on that count last august.
In a court filing in that case, however, a U.S. Park Police investigator noted Pruden was also being looked at in connection with a series of assaults at Meridian Hill Park.
“In the D.C. cases, each of the victims was attack with pepper spray, some victims were struck with a flashlight (as opposed to a tree limb at Daingerfeld Island) and the attacker often claimed to be a police officer,” assistant U.S. attorney Christopher R. Cooke wrote in the filing. “The victims of these attacks positively identified the defendant as their attacker.”
A spokesperson for the FBI’s Washington Field Office confirmed to WUSA9 Thursday afternoon that Pruden was the defendant in both cases. Pruden was working as a fourth grade teacher at a Maryland elementary school at the time of his arrest in the Daingerfeld Island case last year, but has since moved to Norfolk.
Each count of assault is a felony carrying a maximum sentence of up to 10 years if convicted. Impersonating a federal officer is also a felony carrying a maximum sentence of up to three years in prison if convicted.
It was not immediately clear whether Pruden had made an initial appearance before a judge or if he was being represented by an attorney. Court records show he was assigned a federal public defender in the Eastern District of Virginia case.