A court rejected St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner’s second appeal to be reinstated as a prosecutor in order to proceed with charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who defended their home with firearms during unrest in June.
The Missouri Court of Appeals struck down Gardner’s plea Wednesday, siding against her claim that she should not have been disqualified from the case by Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer in December.
The prosecutor was removed from the McCloskey case after it was determined she raised the appearance of initiating a “criminal prosecution for political purposes” following reports that she used the charges to circulate fundraising emails for her reelection bid, Circuit Judge Thomas Clark said at the time.
The McCloskeys were charged with unlawful use of a weapon in addition to evidence tampering following the circulation of the viral video that showed the duo confronting protesters in front of their St. Louis mansion. Mark McCloskey, donning a pink polo, walked around his lawn with an AR-15, while his wife, Patricia, carried a silver handgun, footage showed. The pair pleaded not guilty to the charges in October.
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
Gardner will have to take her case to the Missouri Supreme Court if she wishes to continue pursuing the couple in a prosecutorial role.
In July, law enforcement executed a search warrant on Mark McCloskey’s home and seized his AR-15 following Gardner’s initial charging announcement. The city’s decision drew outcry from conservative figures and gun rights activists after it came to light that the pair feared for their lives.
“[They said] that they were going to kill us,” Patricia McCloskey told Fox News in July about the demonstrators around her home. “They were going to come in there. They were going to burn down the house. They were going to be living in our house after I was dead, and they were pointing to different rooms and said, ‘That’s going to be my bedroom, and that’s going to be the living room, and I’m going to be taking a shower in that room.'”
The couple appeared as guests at the 2020 Republican National Convention to speak about their experience and endorse former President Donald Trump.
