Update: Law Licenses Suspended for McCloskeys, the Missouri Couple Who Held off BLM Protesters Outside Their Home

The Missouri Supreme Court has suspended the law licenses of a Missouri couple who were convicted of misdemeanors for holding guns outside their gated community in St. Louis in 2020, when a group of protesters, including BLM activists, demonstrated.

At the same time, the court delayed the suspension, subjecting the two attorneys–who have become folk heroes among conservatives–to a year of probation during which they must "not participate in behavior that breaches the Rules of Professional Conduct."

Mark and Patricia McCloskey were honored speakers at the 2020 Republican National Convention for defending their home. Mark McCloskey is a Republican candidate for the United States Senate.

Although the McCloskeys, who were pardoned after being convicted by Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, said they were justified in keeping weapons outside their house to deter a throng that they claimed was threatening them, local prosecutors disagreed.

The case, which contained prosecutorial misconduct, drew widespread notice in the media.

Circuit Judge Thomas Clark II removed Kimberly Gardner, a Democrat and St. Louis' first black chief prosecutor, from the case in December 2020 after she used the incident in inflammatory campaign fundraising emails sent out days before the McCloskeys were charged. Gardner has accused local police of racism. According to NPR, Clark found that Gardner's actions gave the appearance of impropriety and compromised the defendants' right to a fair trial.

According to the Washington Times, leftist financier George Soros, whose philanthropy funded groups involved in violent protests after the 2014 death of black teenager Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, contributed to Gardner's campaign through his political organizations as part of a "rogue prosecutors" campaign to elect soft-on-crime district attorneys. Critics claim that these zealous prosecutors have increased crime rates in communities across the country.

The Black Lives Matter activists who showed up outside the McCloskeys' house were marching to the St. Louis mayor's house to protest the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, a black man whose death sparked nationwide riots. Nine demonstrators were charged with misdemeanor trespassing after the event, however the charges were ultimately dismissed.

The McCloskeys claimed at the time that their actions "were solely motivated by fear and apprehension" as a result of the mob's presence on a private street.

Chief Justice Paul C. Wilson stated in dual orders Feb. 8 that the fact that Mark and Patricia McCloskey were each convicted of a "misdemeanor violation containing moral turpitude" required them to be disciplined under court standards.

According to the Legal Information Institute, moral turpitude is a legal word that describes "wicked, aberrant behavior representing an immoral, unethical, or unfair deviation from usual social standards such that it would shock a community."

Mark McCloskey pleaded guilty to a "class A misdemeanor of harassment in the second degree" on June 17, 2021, according to Wilson (pdf). He received a monetary penalty of $750.

Patricia McCloskey pleaded guilty to a "class C misdemeanor of assault in the fourth degree" the same day, according to the chief justice (pdf). She was fined $2,000 for her actions.

The couple had been charged with felony-level unlawful use of a weapon, but prosecutors worked out a plea deal with them to lessen the charges' severity.

The court's chief disciplinary officer, Alan Pratzel, had previously requested that their law licenses be suspended. The couple's actions, according to Pratzel, displayed "indifference to public safety" and "moral turpitude."

According to The Epoch Times, Pratzel recognized that the governor's pardons removed the McCloskeys' convictions, but said that "the person's culpability remains."

"I'm sad the Supreme Court felt it necessary to reprimand us," Patricia McCloskey told local media. What we did, I believe, was not an act of moral turpitude." She went on to say that they'll both follow the probation rules. Source: theepochtimes.com  contributed to this report.