#Couple who brandished guns in front of BLM protests make court appearance

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Patricia and Mark McCloskey leave court in St. Louis, Missouri.
AP

An attorney for the couple who were charged with brandishing weapons as Black Lives Matter protesters marched past their St. Louis home in June said they will prove “with absolute certainty” that they did not commit a crime.

Mark and Patricia McCloskey made their first court appearance in the case on Monday — exactly one week after they virtually addressed the Republican National Convention.

“We are simply anxious to remove all the noise from this case, move the case forward, and have the facts heard by a jury and let the jury decide whether or not the McCloskeys committed any felony offenses because we are convinced with absolute certainty that there was no felony committed here,” said the McCloskeys’ attorney Joel Schwartz.

They did not enter a plea, and the judge continued the case until Oct. 6.

The couple did not speak to reporters afterward.

Mark McCloskey, 63, stood outside their mansion in June holding an AR-15 rifle while Patricia McCloskey, 61, was armed with a semiautomatic pistol after protesters broke down the gate encircling their neighborhood and turned down their private street.

The couple said they felt threatened because the protesters knocked down an iron gate and ignored a “No Trespassing” sign.

Speaking at the RNC, Mark McCloskey decried the calls to “defund the police” and said Democrats seem intent on protecting criminals over American citizens.

“Not a single person in the out-of-control mob you saw at our house was charged with a crime,” he said. “But you know who was? We were.”

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in July he was moving to dismiss the case.

With Post wires