ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The couple who stood outside their home waving guns at a mod of protesters that made their way onto their private street last year pleaded guilty to charges against them.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey, personal injury lawyers who live in the St. Louis Central West End neighborhood, agreed to a plea deal in which the more serious charges of unlawful use of a weapon were tossed out.
According to a statement from the special prosecutor on the case, Patricia McCloskey pleaded guilty to a Class A misdemeanor of harassment in the second degree and Mark McCloskey pleaded guilty to Class C misdemeanor of assault in the fourth degree. They were fined a combined $2,750 – a $2,000 fine was given to Patricia McCloskey and $750 to Mark McCloskey.
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"It's a good day," Mark McCloskey said when leaving the courthouse on Thursday.
Because the charges are misdemeanors, the McCloskeys do not face the possibility of losing their law licenses and can continue to own firearms. However, they agreed to give up the weapons they used during the confrontation.
“I’d do it again,” he said from the courthouse steps in downtown St. Louis. “Any time the mob approaches me, I’ll do what I can to put them in imminent threat of physical injury because that’s what kept them from destroying my house and my family.”
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner charged each of them with one felony count of unlawful use of a weapon in October last year.
Protesters were marching to the home of then-St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson as part of the nationwide protest following the killing of George Floyd in June of 2020. The group veered into a private street that the McCloskeys lived on. They said they felt threatened by the "angry mob" that ignored the "No Trespassing" sign and broke down an iron gate. The couple in their early 60s stood on their property with guns and demanded the protesters leave.
Mark McCloskey has announced he's running for U.S. Senate next year.
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“But I think that their conduct was a little unreasonable in the end,” Mark McCloskey said. “I don’t think people should view this case as some type of betrayal or assault on the Second Amendment. We still have the Second Amendment rights. It’s just that the Second Amendment does not permit unreasonable conduct.”
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