A St. Louis couple has emerged that made headlines across the country for being on their front porch brandishing weapons aimed at Black Lives Matter protesters, they have been in a long dispute with their neighbors.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a husband and wife personal injury lawyer duo, were filmed Sunday night targeting protesters as they walked through their mansion on their way to Mayor Lyda Krewson’s home.
They said they were scared and defended their property.
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Mark and Patricia McCloskey, photographed Sunday night with guns outside their home, have been involved in a long line on a 1,143-square-foot lot near their property
The disputed area around your St. Louis property is marked in red
Personal injury lawyers confronted protesters who marched past her home on Sunday.
However, the couple have long been involved in a different battle for their home – this one was fought in the Circuit Court of St. Louis since 2017, which has also seen weapons drawn.
The trustees of Portland Place, where they live, say the ‘strip of land’ next to their home belongs to them, as described in the adviser’s documents more than 116 years ago.
The McCloskeys, however, say the legal concept of “adverse possession” means that they own it, the idea that the land can be occupied and, after a period of many years, owned.
In an affidavit, Mark McCloskey described the land as being within his block, saying “it consists of one thousand one hundred and forty-three (1,143) square feet” and “north of the Portland Place sidewalk.”
On Monday, Judge Joan Moriarty ruled against the McCloskeys’ motion to end the case without a trial, meaning the three-year battle continues.
The McCloskeys’ home in St Louis at One Portland Place is in a gated community
‘Between the time of the One Portland Place acquisition and the construction of the aforementioned ten-foot wall, the McCloskeys regularly banned all people, including Portland Place residents, from crossing the pack, including at least one point, challenging to a resident at gunpoint “Who refused to heed the McCloskeys’ warnings to stay off that property,” an affidavit in the lawsuit states.
McCloskeys and trustees have argued about planting and landscaping, about tiles and tuckpointing, and even over the ‘Private Street’ sign.
According to the lawsuit, obtained by the St. Louis-Post Office, “Mark McCloskey unearthed the sign and reinstalled it on the south side of the sidewalk.”
McCloskey told CNN Tuesday night that he was scared for his life by the “mafia” of protesters.
“I was the victim of a mob that came through the door,” he said.
I didn’t care what color they were. I didn’t care what her motivation was.
“I was scared, they assaulted me and I had an imminent fear of being run over, killed and burned down my house.”
McCloskey, 63, rejected the suggestion that it was a symbol for those who rejected Black Lives Matter.
“I am not the face of anything that opposes the Black Lives Matter movement,” he said, calling the idea “completely ridiculous.”
“I was a person scared for my life who protected my wife, my home, my home, my livelihood.”
Albert Watkins, a St. Louis attorney for the McCloskeys, said in a statement to The Washington Post that they “acted legally” out of “fear and apprehension.”
The confrontation was not race related, he added, and the white “agitators” were responsible for provoking the white couple.
“My clients, as melanin-deficient humans, are completely respectful of the message that Black Lives Matter needs to get across, especially to whites,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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