ST. LOUIS _ A St. Louis judge Tuesday postponed Mark and Patricia McCloskey's Tuesday morning court appearance until next Wednesday, a move the couple's lawyer says suggests that a St. Louis grand jury soon will decide whether to issue an indictment.
Defense lawyer Joel Schwartz told reporters the one-week continuance of the McCloskeys' hearing signals that the grand jury will decide before next week whether to indict the couple. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Monday that he learned the grand jury heard some testimony and case evidence last week.
"If in fact there is a true bill, we'll deal with it at that time," Schwartz said.
Before postponing the hearing, Judge Craig Higgins said in court Tuesday that it's his understanding that parties in the case are waiting to see what the grand jury does in the McCloskeys' cases.
The McCloskeys each are charged with one felony count of brandishing guns at protesters outside the couple's Portland Place mansion in June.
Charging documents state that on June 28, Mark McCloskey, 63, pointed an AR-15 rifle at protesters and Patricia McCloskey, 61, wielded a semi-automatic handgun, placing protesters in fear of injury.
Outside the Carnahan Courthouse on Tuesday, Mark McCloskey criticized the City Counselor's Office for opting against prosecuting protesters for trespassing into Portland Place, a private, gated street. He said the city's "leftist" government is targeting him and his wife "for doing no more than exercising our Second Amendment rights."
"The government chooses to persecute us for doing no more than exercising our right to defend ourselves, our home, our property and our family and now we're getting drug here time after time after time and for what?" Mark McCloskey said. "We didn't fire a shot. People were violently protesting in front of our house and screaming death threats and threats of rape and threats of arson. Nobody gets charged but we get charged."
