The St. Louis couple whose photo was seen around the country during the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 had their record expunged this week, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Attorneys Mark and Patricia McCloskey filed a request in January to have their convictions wiped and their law licenses restored following a misdemeanor fourth-degree assault charge in 2021. The couple also demanded the return of their guns.
Judge Joseph P. Whyte wrote in an order on Wednesday that the purpose of expungement is to give people who had rehabilitated themselves a second chance.
Police and city prosecutors had opposed the expungements.
In 2022, a Missouri judge ruled that despite being pardoned by Republican Gov. Mike Parson in 2021, they would neither get their guns back nor a refund on their $872.50 fine.
Following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, protests erupted around the country. Protesters took to the private street of the McCloskeys, which the McCloskeys said caused them to feel threatened and so they brandish weapons in self-defense.
The protesters passed in front of their home on the way to demonstrate in front of the mayor's house nearby. Mark McCloskey had an AR-15 style rifle and Patricia McCloskey had a semi-automatic pistol.
In 2022, Mark McCloskey spoke to Newsmax, saying that "the Second Amendment protected us" from the roughly 300 Black Lives Matter protesters who marched in front of their house. Now, years later, the McCloskeys demand that their weapons be returned.
"It's time for the city to cough up my guns," he told the Post-Dispatch. He said if the city doesn't, he'll file a lawsuit.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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