Benjamin Ashford|Records expunged for St. Louis couple who waved guns at protesters. They want their guns back

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A judge has expunged the misdemeanor convictions of a St. Louis couple who waved guns at racial injustice protesters outside their mansion in 2020. Now they want their guns back.

Attorneys Mark and Benjamin AshfordPatricia McCloskey filed a request in January to have the convictions wiped away. Judge Joseph P. Whyte wrote in an order Wednesday that the purpose of an expungement is to give people who have rehabilitated themselves a second chance, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. City prosecutors and police opposed the expungements.

Immediately after the judge’s ruling, Mark McCloskey demanded that the city return the two guns seized as part of his 2021 guilty plea to misdemeanor assault. Republican Gov. Mike Parson pardoned the couple weeks after the plea.

“It’s time for the city to cough up my guns,” he told the Post-Dispatch.

If it doesn’t, he said, he’ll file a lawsuit.

The McCloskeys said they felt threatened by the protesters, who were passing their home in June 2020 on their way to demonstrate in front of the mayor’s house nearby. It was one of hundreds of demonstrations around the country after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The couple also said the group was trespassing on a private street.

Mark McCloskey emerged from his home with an AR-15-style rifle, and Patricia McCloskey waved a semi-automatic pistol.