St. Louis couple that pointed guns at demonstrators plead guilty to misdemeanors, agree to surrender guns
Mark and Patricia McCloskey pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges after they waved guns at protesters in 2020.
Patricia McCloskey pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment and was fined $2,000.
Mark McCloskey admitted to misdemeanor fourth-degree assault and was fined $750.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple that infamously pointed guns at demonstrators who were marching past their house last summer, have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in the incident.
Patricia McCloskey pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment and was fined $2,000, while Mark admitted to misdemeanor fourth-degree assault and was fined $750.
The McCloskey's also agreed to surrender the firearms they used in the confrontation.
"This particular resolution of these two cases represents my best judgment of an appropriate and fair disposition for the parties involved as well as the public good," special prosecutor Richard Callahan said in the statement, BuzzFeed News reported.
After the plea deal, Mark McCloskey - who has announced he is running for an open Senate seat in Missouri - was the opposite of contrite, telling reporters of the incident that he would "do it again," according to the Associated Press.
Last summer, police executed a search warrant on the McCloskey's estate, seizing a semi-automatic .223 caliber rifle matching the description of the one wielded by Mark McCloskey. An attorney for Patricia McCloskey later provided police with the handgun she pointed at demonstrators.
In a statement released by his Senate campaign, McCloskey claimed he had confronted an "angry mob" that had "crashed through my gate, and threatened my wife, my family, and my home." But authorities flatly disagreed: no protester was prosecuted in connection to the incident.
"There was no evidence that any of them had a weapon and no one I interviewed realized they had ventured into a private enclave," Callahan said, per BuzzFeed. The prosecutor noted that protesters complied with a request to leave the property.
The June 28, 2020, incident sparked a national outcry, with demonstrators decrying the couple's actions and Republican politicians, including then-President Donald Trump, defending the couple.
The two spoke at the Republican National Convention in August 2020.
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