Stalker led former Pa. House Speaker Mark Rozzi to wear a bulletproof vest

Former state House Speaker Mark Rozzi (D-Berks) said he wore a bulletproof vest for several months in 2022 when he was the target of a politically motivated stalker.

During an interview last week with the Capital-Star on an unrelated subject, Rozzi revealed that he had been harassed by the man, who was not a constituent but lived nearby in the Reading area. He said the episode contributed to his decision to get out of politics.

“There comes a time when you know it’s time to leave,” Rozzi said, adding that the polarized politics of the last several years made leading as a moderate lawmaker difficult. “You constantly had to look over your shoulder.”

The reality of political violence in America loomed over a day of peaceful demonstrations Saturday in which millions protested the Trump administration and its aggressive deportation tactics.

Early Saturday morning, former Minnesota state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were assassinated by a gunman posing as a police officer who knocked on their door. Democratic Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were also shot multiple times earlier in the night at their home and are expected to survive. 

Pennsylvania has also been affected by politically motivated violence this year. An attacker firebombed the Governor’s Residence on April 13, after the first night of Passover. It forced Gov. Josh Shapiro, his wife and their children to evacuate in the middle of the night. 

Cody Balmer, the Harrisburg man charged with the attack, later told authorities he hated Shapiro and disagreed with the governor’s support for Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.

Shapiro called on leaders across the country to speak with moral clarity after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced Hortman’s death Saturday morning.

“This is unacceptable — we all have a responsibility to stand up and work to defeat the political violence that is tearing through our country,” he said. “America is better than this.”

Rozzi could not be reached over the weekend to comment on the Minnesota shootings.

The Exeter Township man who faced misdemeanor charges for harassing Rozzi and his then-girlfriend died before the case was set to go to trial last year, Berks County District Attorney John Adams confirmed. The accused stalker had a history of unusual behavior in which he expressed a willingness to “die in combat.”

Rozzi, who served as speaker in early 2023 when control of the House was uncertain, said the man was allegedly motivated by a belief that former President Joe “Biden and the Democrats were going to destroy America.”

Adams identified Rozzi’s stalker as Victor Greer, 56, who died in June 2024, when the case was “very close to going to trial.” The most serious charge against Greer was a third-degree misdemeanor, Adams said.  

“This individual was definitely harassing and stalking him and his then-girlfriend and I’m sure it was somewhat traumatic,” Adams said.

About a decade before he died, Greer was arrested in Manhattan on weapons charges.

Officers pulled over Greer for driving the wrong way on a one-way street around 1 a.m. July 2, 2014, and spotted ammunition and three knives inside the car, according to reports. 

In the center console of Greer’s vehicle, police found a note that said “I want to die in combat and want to go to heaven and meet god,” and also mentioned his cats, his parents and his favorite movies, authorities said.

The New York Police Department bomb squad searched the car’s trunk and found two unloaded semi-automatic rifles, a semiautomatic handgun, a 12-gauge shotgun, more than 400 rounds of ammunition, a bottle rocket and drug paraphernalia, Reading-area TV station WFMZ reported.

Rozzi was elected speaker in January 2023 after Democrats won a one-vote majority in the House in the previous November election. One incumbent Democrat had been reelected despite dying weeks before the election and two others resigned to take higher offices, leaving control of the House to be decided in special elections.

After Democrats were unable to muster votes to elect current Speaker Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia), Rozzi struck a deal with Republicans in which he agreed to become an independent to secure GOP support to elect him as speaker. He won the 115-85 vote with 16 Republicans joining Democrats’ unanimous support. 

Rozzi told the Capital-Star last week that he had always considered himself politically moderate and felt he was getting lost in the House where the parties seemed to be moving farther apart.

“I was a nonexistent type of person,” Rozzi said. 

Rozzi said he planned use his speakership to pass legislation to provide a two-year window for victims of childhood sexual abuse to sue their abusers and those who enabled them. Legislation to hold a referendum on amending the state constitution to provide the window had passed in the previous session with bipartisan support, but was derailed by an administrative error.

He faced opposition from Republicans, including a key ally who called for him to resign, when his promised switch from Democrat to independent never happened. 

Rozzi said he’s hopeful the state Senate will act on the survivors’ window amendment this session. The legislation passed the House earlier this month. 

A Commonwealth Court panel last week upheld the right of abuse victims to sue public agencies for enabling their abuse under a law Rozzi passed in 2019, which he described as gratifying knowing that it would help protect children. 

“I’m happy to look back but I’m also happy to not be there,” Rozzi said.

After leaving office, Rozzi said he started working on an autobiographical book about his abuse and his rise to speaker. He said his chances of getting back into politics are slim, although he said he would consider running for state Senate if the seat was in danger of being lost.

For now, Rozzi said he’s doing “a ton of writing,” enjoying “being able to breathe,” and is looking forward to getting out of town for a while.

“Twelve years is a long time,” he said.