Patricia and Mark McCloskey
Shortly after their pardon by Missouri’s governor, the gun-toting lawyers prosecuted for pointing their weapons at Black Lives Matter protesters could face the indefinite suspension of their law licenses after a court official asked a judge to discipline them.
More than a year has passed since St. Louis attorneys Patricia McCloskey and Mark McCloskey were first seen on a viral video pointing firearms racial justice demonstrators outside their mansion in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. The city’s prosecutors charged them with felonies in July 2020, and they pleaded down to misdemeanors this past June.
Republican Gov. Mike Parson washed away their criminal jeopardy about a month later.
According to the Supreme Court of Missouri’s Chief Disciplinary Officer Alan Pratzel, the governor’s act has “no impact” on the possible professional consequences for the lawyer-couple.
“In Missouri, a pardon obliterates a person’s conviction, but the person’s guilt remains,” Pratzel wrote in a court filing.
The McCloskeys stood outside of their home, pointing their guns at protesters who were demonstrating against St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson (D), criticized for having doxxed people who wanted to defund the police department. The couple maintained they were acting in self-defense.
Though Mark McCloskey pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault, and Patricia McCloskey to second-degree harassment, the husband, who is running for the U.S. Senate, boasted about what he did.
Pratzel is using this against him:
Aggravating circumstances include Respondent’s statements made to the media after his guilty plea. On the courthouse steps immediately following his sentencing, Respondent publicly declared: “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. 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 and my family.” … Minutes after admitting in court that his behavior was not legally justified in that setting, he told the news media that he would commit the same crime under the same circumstances.
The McCloskeys did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment. Joel Schwartz, their attorney in the criminal case, declined to comment.
[Screenshot via KMOV]
