ST. LOUIS — The attorney for Patricia McCloskey has asked a St. Louis judge to dismiss Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner from her case just as a St. Louis judge did days ago on the case involving her husband.
Joel Schwartz has asked Judge Michael Stelzer to adopt Judge Thomas Clark’s ruling, which dismissed Gardner from the case Thursday. Clark concluded Gardner filed charges against the couple for political purposes after she referenced the case in campaign fundraising emails to supporters days before, and after, she issued the charges against them, giving the “appearance of impropriety.”
Gardner’s office issued a statement following that ruling, saying only that she was “considering her options.”
Mark and Patricia McCloskey made international headlines and garnered heavy support from conservative leaders, including President Donald Trump, after they pointed guns at protesters during a June 28 confrontation outside of their Central West End home. Gardner referred to the protesters as Black Lives Matter protesters in her campaign materials, but most of them told police they were heading to Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house.
Clark’s ruling to dismiss Gardner only applied to Mark McCloskey’s case.
Stelzer is overseeing Patricia McCloskey’s case.
The presiding judge, Rex Burlison, will now select a special prosecutor to oversee Mark McCloskey’s case. He told 5 On Your Side he plans to make his decision by the end of this week.
There is some urgency in making the decision.
Burlison’s term as presiding judge expires at the end of the year, at which point Judge Stelzer – currently assigned to Patricia McCloskey’s case – will become the presiding judge.
Gardner charged Mark and Patricia McCloskey with unlawful use of a weapon and added the charge of evidence tampering onto Patricia McCloskey’s case, alleging she altered the handgun she used during the confrontation to make it inoperable.
The point at which that gun became inoperable has been in dispute.
Patricia McCloskey told police she and her husband once used the gun during a trial against a gun manufacturer and made it inoperable so it could serve as a prop. The McCloskeys are attorneys.
In order to charge someone with unlawful use of a weapon, prosecutors must prove the weapon was “readily capable of lethal force” at the time of the incident in question.
In his motion to adopt, Schwartz wrote: "There is no question that, based on the minimal discovery provided thus far, ACA Hinckley will be a fact witness. If the state does not call ACA Hinckley, defendant almost certainly will."
The motion also says, "The defendants allege that the conduct of Circuit Attorney Gardner and ACA Hinckley create an appearance of impropriety that would lead a reasonable person to doubt the fairness of a trial, and that as a result, the Circuit Attorney’s Office, as an entity, should be disqualified."
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