Judge expunges Mark McCloskey’s misdemeanor

By St. Louis Post-Dispatch via My Courier-Tribune

ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis judge on Wednesday expunged the misdemeanor convictions of a local lawyer and his wife after they were pardoned for pointing guns at racial justice protesters outside their Central West End mansion in 2020.

Immediately after his conviction was cleared, Mark McCloskey demanded the city return the two guns that were seized as part of his guilty plea to misdemeanor assault, he said in an interview Thursday.

“It’s time for the city to cough up my guns,” he said.

If it doesn’t, he said, he’ll file another lawsuit.

The expungements, which came over objections from city prosecutors and police, marked the latest development in a four-year saga that began in the summer of 2020 when McCloskey and his wife, Patricia, emerged from their home on Portland Place and waved guns at people walking by during a protest of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

The McCloskeys, who said they were protecting their property from protesters trespassing on the private street, were charged by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner with multiple felonies. Gardner was later disqualified from prosecuting them after mentioning their case in campaign emails.

A special prosecutor took over and indicted the McCloskeys on felony charges of unlawful use of a weapon and evidence tampering. They later reached an agreement in which Mark McCloskey pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault and his wife, Patricia McCloskey, pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment, both misdemeanors.

As part of that agreement, the McCloskeys surrendered the Colt AR-15 rifle and a Bryco .380-caliber pistol they were holding during the confrontation on Portland Place and paid a fine of $872.50.

Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, later pardoned the couple, and McCloskey sued in 2021 to get his guns back. A city judge denied that request and a subsequent appeal.

Meanwhile, McCloskey launched an unsuccessful campaign for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. He has also gotten involved with a controversial statewide push to adopt a GOP candidate vetting protocol to stamp out candidates who aren’t “true Republicans.”

Then, in January 2024, the McCloskeys petitioned to expunge the couple’s misdemeanor convictions. They testified at a hearing in March and argued they have been upstanding citizens since their guilty pleas. Mark McCloskey said he has continued to work as a lawyer, fighting for his clients.

Attorneys for the city’s public safety department, however, asked protesters to testify about how the McCloskeys’ actions affected them. They also quizzed the couple on advertisements for Mark McCloskey’s subsequent political campaign that featured footage from the incident.

The city and St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore’s Office argued that the couple represents a continued threat to public safety and has shown no remorse for the impact of their actions.

But Judge Joseph P. Whyte wrote in an order that the testimony of the protesters showed a threat to public safety on June 28, 2020, but not in the time since.

The purpose of an expungement, he wrote, is to give people who have rehabilitated themselves a second chance. McCloskey’s campaign rhetoric is protected by the First Amendment and not evidence of a continued threat, Whyte said.

“It seems the parties have attempted to make political arguments in this proceeding,” Whyte wrote. “This court, however, is required to look only at the relevant language in the statute.”