St. Louis couple arrested for brandishing guns at protesters, then pardoned by governor, want their weapons back
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The St. Louis couple who waved firearms at racial-justice protesters walking past their mansion on the way to visit the mayor last year want their guns back.
The court ordered the weapons destroyed after the couple, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, age 64 and 62 respectively, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and harassment charges last year. However, that did not happen, and Republican Gov. Mike Parson pardoned them as soon as they entered their plea.
Mark McCloskey, who was armed with a rifle, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault last July. Patricia, who packed a handgun, copped to second-degree harassment. They were also charged a total of $2,750 in fines that were part of their plea agreement with the courts.
The fate of those fines and their guns — he brandished an AR-15 rifle and Patricia waved a semiautomatic handgun — is now up in the air as courts decide.
“Obviously with our customary efficiency, we should have destroyed (the weapons) months ago,” Robert Dierker of the City Counselor’s Office told a hearing on Wednesday. “We haven’t. So McCloskey’s a beneficiary of bureaucratic, I want to say, ineptitude. But in any event, it’s fortuitous that the weapons still exist.”
The two lawyers said they felt threatened as protesters streamed by along their private street during demonstrations stemming from the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. They insisted later that they were defending themselves from a mob that threatened their house.
They sued the city to get the guns back, but the city is holding fast. Their request pits them against the City Counselor’s Office, which says that the pardon erased the conviction but not the plea agreement.
Separately, Patricia McCloskey has a lawsuit pending against the Circuit Attorney’s Office seeking the return of the $2,122.50 she paid in fines and court costs.
The two also face possible suspension of their law licenses, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Circuit Judge Joan Moriarty has taken the case under advisement.
