Earlier this week, when the St. Louis couple who waved their guns to protect themselves from a mob that broke into their property was charged with a felony, we thought it strange for many reasons. The most striking reason was that to charge Mark and Patricia McCloskey, prosecutors had to prove the guns were capable of lethal force–but they weren’t capable. Now we learn that Patricia McCloskey’s handgun was tampered with so the couple could be charged. tampered with evidence
When the McCloskeys former attorney Al Watkins turned over the pistol that Patricia McCloskey pointed at the mob because she worried about her personal safety, he noted that the handgun wasn’t a working gun. It was only used as an exhibit in the McCloskeys’ own law practice for a lawsuit against the handgun manufacturer. However, a member of Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s staff ordered the crime lab to fix the gun that it was “readily capable of lethal use.”
Per KSDK:
Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Hinckley ordered crime lab staff members to field strip the handgun and found it had been assembled incorrectly. Specifically, the firing pin spring was put in front of the firing pin, which was backward, and made the gun incapable of firing, according to documents obtained by 5 On Your Side.
Firearms experts then put the gun back together in the correct order and test-fired it, finding that it worked, according to the documents.
Excerpt of document obtained by 5 On Your Side showing Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Hinckley’s orders to crime lab experts.
I am not an attorney—or a legal expert, but that sure reads like tampering with evidence to this observer, and to the McCloskey’s lawyer as well.
Their attorney, Joel Schwartz, confirmed to 5 On Your Side that the McCloskeys intentionally misplaced the firing pin on the gun and that it was in that condition when Patricia McCloskey waved it at protesters and turned it into their former attorney Al Watkins.
“It’s disheartening to learn that a law enforcement agency altered evidence in order to prosecute an innocent member of the community,” Schwartz said.
It’s disheartening but not surprising. After all, Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner was a George Soros special. A super PAC funded by the evil dude, far-left sugar daddy Soros contributed at least $190,750 to Gardner’s campaign.
