By Tanya Metaksa
Special to TGM
The St. Louis couple who defended themselves and their home with firearms when an unruly mob of protestors broke down a gate and trespassed on private property last July, face a trial during the first week of November.
The case of Mark and Patricia McCloskey has been reported and covered by Tucker Carlson, Shawn Hannity and hundreds of other news outlets as well as in my columns.
Following all the media coverage the St. Louis Circuit Attorney (in most jurisdictions that office is called District Attorney), Kimberly Gardner decided to prosecute the McCloskeys and sought an indictment by empaneling a grand jury in October, which predictably indicted the McCloskeys on charges of unlawful use of a weapon and tampering with evidence. The couple pled not guilty on October 14 and two weeks later filed a motion to remove Gardner because she used their case “in targeted email solicitations for campaign contributions.”
On Dec. 10, 2020 Circuit Judge Thomas Clark II ruled that Kim Gardner’s fund raising emails infringed upon Mark McCloskeys right to a fair trial and that she “initiated a criminal prosecution for political purposes.” Thus Gardner and her entire office were disqualified from prosecuting Mark McCloskey.
The case against Patricia McCloskey was assigned to a different Circuit Judge, Michael Stelzer, and he agreed with Judge Clark. In early 2021 Gardner then filed an appeal with the Missouri Supreme Court. The Missouri Supreme Court on April 6 upheld the decision to remove Gardner from the McCloskey case. Today Circuit Court Judge David Mason scheduled a trial for the first week in November with a new prosecutor, retired U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri Richard Callahan. Upon his appointment Callahan said, “I’m going to start at the ground level and see what the facts are and where they take me.”
Since Gardner never took any legal action against the trespassers that terrified and harassed the couple, it will be interesting to see how the new prosecutor pursues the case.
As I wrote in July— Missouri Governor Mike Parson was very supportive of the McCloskeys and floated the idea of possibly granting them a pardon, if necessary. The Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmidt filed an amicus brief in the case in July 2020. Hopefully, the McCloskeys will get their cases dismissed. Their actions were not committed offensively; it was an act of self-defense.
