The attorney for Mark and Patricia McCloskey says he’s not surprised a grand jury indicted the St. Louis couple for displaying weapons to ward off threatening Black Lives Matter marchers at their home, but he wants to see the prosecutors’ presentation.
A St. Louis grand jury on Tuesday indicted the McCloskeys on felony charges of unlawful use of a weapon and evidence tampering for the June 28 incident, which drew national attention. Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner charged the couple in July with brandishing weapons at protesters. The grand jury added the count of witness tampering.
The couple’s lawyer Joel Schwartz said he plans to request a transcript or recording of the proceedings, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
“I’ll certainly be interested in what was presented to the grand jury,” he said.
Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson has vowed to pardon the couple if they are convicted, and state Attorney General Eric Schmitt has filed a motion to dismiss the case.
The couple, who spoke at the Republican National Convention, were charged for pointing an AR-15 rifle at protesters and wielding a semiautomatic handgun that was said to have made the protesters fearful of injury.
Mark McCloskey spoke Tuesday outside the courthouse.
“The government chooses to persecute us for doing no more than exercising our right to defend ourselves, our home, our property and our family and now we’re getting drug here time after time after time and for what?” he said.
“We didn’t fire a shot. People were violently protesting in front of our house and screaming death threats and threats of rape and threats of arson. Nobody gets charged but we get charged.”
He criticized the City Counselor’s Office choosing not to prosecute protesters for trespassing. Nine protesters were summoned by police, but City Counselor Michael Garvin said Sept. 29 that trespassing charges would not be pursued.
In an interview with Fox News in July, the attorney general, Schmitt, argued that the right to self-defense is “deeply rooted” in the Constitution, and the state has a “castle doctrine” upholding broad rights for people to protect their lives, families and homes.
“At a time when there’s calls to defund the police, at a time with skyrocketing violent crime rates – including here in Missouri and in St. Louis – we’ve got a prosecutor now targeting individuals for exercising their fundamental rights under the Second Amendment,” Schmitt said.
The attorney general said “the charges amount to nothing more than a political prosecution.”
The McCloskeys said the protesters broke through an iron gate marked “No Trespassing” and “Private Street” and that some were violently threatening them.
See the incident:
In a video posted to social media, peaceful protesters in St. Louis calling for police reforms walked past a couple brandishing firearms as they were ordered to stay away from the couple’s home https://t.co/bYl06iAiTo pic.twitter.com/wOZ1Wr3yac
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 29, 2020
