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The St. Louis couple who were captured with guns against Black Lives Matters protesters outside their closed mansion last year face a new legal battle after Missouri’s senior disciplinary counsel asked the court state supreme to suspend their law licenses.
Mark McCloskey and his wife, Patricia, both personal injury attorneys admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1986, have pleaded guilty in connection with the viral incident. Both were pardoned by Republican Gov. Mike Parson in July.
Patricia McCloskey pleaded guilty to harassment and was fined $ 2,000. Mark McCloskey pleaded guilty to fourth degree assault for threatening a passerby with an AR-15 rifle and was fined $ 750. They did not lose their law licenses at the time.
WHO IS KIMBERLY GARDNER, ATTORNEY FOR MISSOURI AT THE CENTER OF THE MCCLOSKEY CASE?
Mark and Patricia McCloskey fire their guns at protesters as they enter their St. Louis neighborhood during a protest against then-mayor Lyda Krewson in June 2020. The Discipline Director of the Missouri has filed a petition to have the legal licenses of the two McCloskeys suspended.
(DANIEL SHULAR / via REUTERS)
Last week, Alan Pratzel, the state’s supreme court disciplinary officer, filed a petition to suspend the legal licenses of Mark and Patricia McCloskey, saying the two crimes proved the couple had demonstrates “indifference to public safety” and “moral turpitude”.
In court documents, he cited other Missouri cases in which lawyers have been sanctioned for crimes. He said their forgiveness had no impact on his request.
“In Missouri, a pardon erases a person’s conviction, but the person’s guilt remains,” read court documents presented to the seven-member court.
The couple went viral in June 2020 when they were captured with a rifle and pistol on protesters marching towards the then home in St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The couple maintained that the crowd had entered their property and that they felt threatened.
No shots were fired.
Pretzel also noted that Mark McCloskey told media he would do the same act under the same circumstances.
“The respondent’s public statements are aggravated because they indicate his refusal to admit wrongdoing and demonstrate his lack of respect for the legal process in which he recently participated,” said the petition.
Fox News has contacted the couple and their lawyer.
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Mark McCloskey is currently running for a seat in the United States Senate as a Republican. In August, he filed a lawsuit demanding the return of his firearms – a Colt AR-15 rifle and a Bryco pistol – along with the fines they paid after pleading guilty.
“Now that the governor has pardoned us and these judgments are overturned, the state should have no legitimate reason to have our guns,” McCloskey told Fox News at the time, saying the city was planning to melt down arms. “It doesn’t do me much good to have a few pounds of molten aluminum. I want my guns back.”
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