Mark McCloskey sues to get guns back, citing pardon ‘absolving’ him of wrongdoing
U.S. Senate candidate Mark McCloskey wants his guns returned to him now that Gov. Mike Parson has pardoned the St. Louis lawyer, who had pleaded guilty to assault after waving a firearm at Black Lives Matter demonstrators last year.
McCloskey sued Wednesday in St. Louis City Circuit Court, citing the pardon in demanding Missouri give back a Colt AR-15 rifle and Bryco pistol.
In his petition, McCloskey writes that the pardon absolved him of “all wrongdoing” and nullifies all judgments and orders in the case. He is also seeking to have fines against him repaid.
“The politically-motivated charges that were used to seize our guns were dropped and now the Governor has granted both Patty and me pardons,” Mark McCloskey said in a statement. “I filed a lawsuit today to demand that the Circuit Attorney return our guns immediately.”
According to the Missouri Department of Corrections, a full pardon removes any “punitive collateral consequence stemming from the conviction without conditions or restrictions.”
Parson made McCloskey’s pardon public on Tuesday. His office gave no explanation and hasn’t responded to requests for comment about the decision.
McCloskey pleaded guilty in June to misdemeanor fourth-degree assault and acknowledged to a judge his actions had endangered others. Patricia McCloskey pleaded guilty to second-degree misdemeanor harassment and was fined $2,000.
Parson had promised soon after the June 2020 incident that he would pardon the couple if they were prosecuted. His action was among a batch of pardons and commutations the governor’s office issued Tuesday. Parson has issued pardons and commutations about once a month.
The decision generated outrage among Democrats and criminal justice reform advocates, who noted that Parson hasn’t pardoned Kevin Strickland, a Kansas City man who has been serving four decades in prison for a 1978 triple homicide that Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said he did not commit.
