A St. Louis couple who waved guns at Black Lives Matter protesters walking by their home last year pleaded guilty Thursday to assault and harassment charges.
The plea agreement means that neither Mark McCloskey nor Patricia McCloskey will face more serious felony weapons charges.
Mark McCloskey, 64, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault and was fined $750. Patricia McCloskey, 62, pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment and will pay a $2,000 fine. Neither will face jail time.
The McCloskeys were caught on camera in June 2020 brandishing firearms at protesters who walked past their home on a march to the mayor’s home. The couple pleaded not guilty to the more serious charges in October, but a new plea agreement was reached after special prosecutor Richard Callahan amended charges, allowing jurors to convict the McCloskeys on the misdemeanors.
The couple said they felt threatened by the protesters, who they accused of breaking down an iron gate and ignoring a “no trespassing” sign. Participants in the demonstration denied damaging the gate and said the march was peaceful.
“The prosecutor dropped every charge except for alleging that I purposely placed other people in imminent risk of physical injury, right, and I sure as heck did,” Mark McCloskey, who is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“That’s what the guns were there for and I’d do it again any time the mob approaches me, I’ll do what I can to place them in imminent threat of physical injury because that’s what kept them from destroying my house.”
Callahan described the protesters as “a racially mixed and peaceful group, including women and children, who simply made a wrong turn on their way to protest in front of the mayor’s house. There was no evidence that any of them had a weapon and no one I interviewed realized they had ventured into a private enclave.”
In addition to the fine, the McCloskeys must forfeit the guns.
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So Mark McCloskey and Patricia McCloskey were defending their property and they are the criminals? The world is upside down with wokeism!
What the hell happened to the Governor that said he would pardon both husband and wife? They should NEVER have been charged at all.
NOT just that, but they IMO should hav been given a BLOODY MEDAL!
But blm, antifa, rioters, looters are not guilty of anything. Such lame schiff.
Such total and utter, BULL.. That’s what this is.
Judicial malpractice. We have this damned terrorist group wreaking havoc all over the country—working side-by-side with rioters, threatening other people and destroying property and looting. They even make it clear on their web site. Two innocent people protecting their property and THEY are hounded by the legal system. If you can’t understand and uphold the Constitution, you have no business as a judge.
AND how in gods name, is merely Brandishing a weapon “ASSAULT”?
I thought for assault, one had to TOUCH SOMEONE.. PHYSICALLY.
Assault is the threat, battery is physical contact.
Wow.. So in that case, WHY THEN were the DOZEN OF blacks who walked BY his house, and hurled threats of “WE WILL KILL YOU, WE WILL BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN” and such, not also guilty of assault?
OR IS it as many of us have been saying for years, LAWS ONLY APPLY TO conservatives, not to liberals!?
So now you don’t have the right to protect your Property . If you look at the picture he is not pointing the gun at rioters He is pointing his finger at them. Remember he was arrested for pointing his gun at them.??
In libtard ran cities/states, nO YOU DO not have a right to protect your property… NOT anymore.
Yep he pointed that finger. In Chinese medicine that is the beginning of the external Colon channel so in essence he was point a dirty finger at those nice protestors.
Thanks Georgia.
A POX on georgia…
This appalling situation is an egregious miscarriage of justice. Mark and Patricia McCloskey were protecting more than just their property. As I understand the situation, the “mostly peaceful” mob had actually threatened their lives as the thugs approached them while trespassing on their property. This legal travesty should never have been allowed to happen and wouldn’t have if we lived in a nation where the delusional, dishonest, and divisive Democrats had not legalized mob rule.
Parsons should have ended this immediately. Spineless jerk. Pardoned the people, fired the prosecutor.
Peaceful people don’t break down gates.
I thought months back, he PROMISED he’d pardon them. GUESS parsons promises are about as meaningless as the rest of the RINOS in the gop!
Peaceful group ?!? No one realized they had ventured into a private enclave ???
We no longer have a country. Nor do we have a party that will speak out against injustice.
Such a terrible, politically motivated injustice. These weren’t “protesters,” they were trespassers.
So that’s the standard now, “other people placed in imminent risk of physical injury?” So does that mean BLM and Antifa protestors will also be arrested?
Not a chance..
The judge that took the guilty plea, the DA that charged them and the mayor that made this be all need to be re-called and jailed.
When are the 3% going to stop this……. The system is broken…. I don’t know about you I took an oath. They are all becoming enemy’s of the state (domestic).