ST. LOUIS 鈥 When Black Lives Matter protesters marched up Kingshighway on June 28 and turned through an iron gate into the magnificent private street of Portland Place, they encountered a couple who have for years, nearly constantly, sued other people and ordered people off their property.
Personal-injury attorneys Mark and Patricia McCloskey became instant national figures when they intercepted protesters marching past their marble-faced palazzo at One Portland Place, aimed guns at them and demanded they get out.
Americans saw the story they wanted to see. Some saw respected professionals fearing for their safety, reasonably exercising their Second Amendment rights to defend their home from violent trespassers. Others saw an overwrought, older affluent couple, recklessly pointing their weapons and asserting their white privilege.
But public records and interviews reveal a fuller picture than emerged two weeks ago. They show the McCloskeys are almost always in conflict with others, typically over control of private property, what people can do on that property, and whose job it is to make sure they do it.
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They filed a lawsuit in 1988 to obtain their house, a castle built for Adolphus Busch鈥檚 daughter and her husband during 狐狸视频鈥 brief run as a world-class city in the early 20th century. At the McCloskeys鈥 property in Franklin County, they have sued neighbors for making changes to a gravel road and twice in just over two years evicted tenants from a modular home on their property.
The incident has become a contentious issue,聽as President Trump and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson have both denounced the decision to charge the couple.聽
Mark McCloskey sued a former employer for wrongful termination and his sister, father and his father鈥檚 caretaker for defamation.
The McCloskeys have filed at least two 鈥渜uiet title鈥澛爏uits asserting squatter鈥檚 rights on land they鈥檝e occupied openly and hostilely 鈥 their terms 鈥 and claimed as their own. In an ongoing suit against Portland Place trustees in 2017, the McCloskeys say they are entitled to a 1,143-square-foot triangle of lawn in front of property that is set aside as common ground in the neighborhood鈥檚 indenture.
It was that patch of green protesters saw when they filed through the gate. Mark McCloskey said in an affidavit that he has defended the patch before by pointing a gun at a neighbor who had tried to cut through it.
The McCloskeys have filed many other lawsuits. They sued a man who sold them a Maserati they claimed was supposed to come with a box of hard-to-find parts. In one trip to the courthouse in November 1996, Mark McCloskey filed two lawsuits, one against a dog breeder whom he said sold him a German shepherd without papers and the other against the Central West End Association for using a photo of their house in a brochure for a house tour after the McCloskeys had told them not to.
鈥淚 guess we were saving gas,鈥 he would quip in a deposition in another case about why he filed two lawsuits at once.
Mark McCloskey has run off trustees trying to make repairs to the wall surrounding his property, insisting that he and his wife own it. In 2013, he destroyed bee hives placed just outside of the mansion鈥檚 northern wall by the neighboring Jewish Central Reform Congregation and left a note saying he did it, and if the mess wasn鈥檛 cleaned up quickly he would seek a restraining order and attorneys fees. The congregation had planned to harvest the honey and pick apples from trees on its property for Rosh Hashanah.
鈥淭he children were crying in school,鈥 Rabbi Susan Talve said. 鈥淚t was part of our curriculum.鈥
Moreover, the McCloskeys have constantly sought to force their neighborhood trustees to maintain the exclusivity of Portland Place, accusing them of selectively enforcing the written rules for living in the neighborhood, known as the trust agreement.
They filed a lawsuit in 狐狸视频 circuit court to try to force the trustees to enforce the neighborhood rules as written. The McCloskeys dismissed the claim, but the judge would not let them refile an amended version because it 鈥渇ailed to allege a justiciable controversy.鈥
The McCloskeys appealed all the way to the state聽Supreme Court to try to make the judge allow them to refile their case, but the effort failed.
One of the rules prohibited unmarried people from living together. Several neighbors said it was because the McCloskeys didn鈥檛 want gay couples living on the block. The trustees voted to impeach Patricia McCloskey as a trustee in 1992 when she fought an effort to change the trust indenture, accusing her of being anti-gay.
Mark McCloskey clarified in a deposition much later that the trust agreement barred unmarried people living together, regardless of their sexuality.
鈥淐ertain people on Portland Place, for political reasons, wanted to make it a gay issue,鈥 he said.
The former Portland Place trustee who was ordered off the trustee property said he had nothing good to say about the couple. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e always been part of the problem, never part of the solution,鈥 Robert Dolgin said.
Albert Watkins, a lawyer representing the couple, questioned the relevance of any story delving into the McCloskeys鈥 litigation history and asked the newspaper to submit written questions. The Post-Dispatch sent questions; Watkins didn鈥檛 answer them. Watkins invited a reporter to come to his office to view a document in which McCloskey discussed his litigation history but said a reporter could not have a copy nor take notes from it. Watkins later declined to allow a reporter to interview his clients under the newspaper鈥檚 condition that the interview be recorded.
Ownership and entitlement
By filing so many lawsuits, the McCloskeys opened a large window onto their values and ambitions. Their lawsuits center on obtaining land, keeping people off of it, and forcing people to follow rules or make good on agreements. Sometimes the suits are about collecting damages for harm done to them.
Mark McCloskey鈥檚 first taste of ownership may have been on his 20th birthday, in 1976. A card from his parents, Bruce and Lois 鈥淐arol鈥 McCloskey, would much later become an exhibit in a lawsuit against his father and his father's trust.
The card said: 鈥淵ou are now the sole & only owner of 5 acres of the Phelps County Farm. Papers to follow. This is on the river聽鈥 Luck! Happy Birthday! Mom + Dad.鈥
He also got a small box of earth from the family鈥檚 240-acre property to make it official.
His parents divorced in 1985. Bruce McCloskey never filed proper documents with Phelps County to transfer the title. When Mark McCloskey inquired with the Phelps County assessor in 1997, he got a letter indicating that what his father had filed was 鈥渘ot a legal conveyance of land.鈥
Mark McCloskey would not let real estate slip through his fingers again.
In a May 2019 deposition in his ongoing lawsuit against Portland Place trustees, he explained how he and his wife came to own their home: through a lawsuit.
The couple met when they were at Southern Methodist University law school. After graduating in 1985, his first job was with a law firm in Dallas. They moved back to 狐狸视频 in 1986. He got a job at Thompson Mitchell, now known as Thompson Coburn.
He testified his mother obtained his childhood home in Country Life Acres in the divorce. He and his wife acquired it from her when she couldn鈥檛 afford to take care of it.
鈥淲hen we first moved up to town, I drove Pattie through Portland and Westmoreland, and I said, 鈥榊ou know, any time you鈥檇 like to, we can flip the country house out at Country Life Acres and buy a big townhouse here,鈥欌 he testified. 鈥淎nd she said, 鈥極K, let鈥檚 do it now.鈥欌
Mark McCloskey said his tax lawyer at the Lewis Rice law firm told him One Portland Place had just been sold. 鈥淚 said, 鈥業 don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 been sold. I would have heard about it.鈥欌
The mansion had fallen into disrepair. The prior owner had heated it by using 48 kerosene heaters, according to a 2018 狐狸视频 Magazine feature that profiled the McCloskeys鈥 long and expensive restoration.
McCloskey testified they bid on the house and signed a deal that would give them 鈥渞ight of last look鈥 at any other contracts. He got a call indicating they could buy the house if they got the cash together by the next morning, but then found out Lewis Rice had arranged to sell it to someone else.
鈥淚 get to my office at about 4 o鈥檆lock in the morning. Pattie and I draft a lawsuit and file it when the courthouse opens, the (temporary restraining order) to prevent the sale. We set up a table at wherever Lewis and Rice was in those days and served every partner on the way in and served the president of Boatmen鈥檚 Bank when he went to work the next day.鈥
They ended up settling with the other buyer for an undisclosed amount and bought One Portland Place for $595,000, according to city property records.
The afternoon he sued Lewis Rice, he said, he got called into the managing partner鈥檚 office at Thompson Mitchell. The partners were not happy he had sued Lewis Rice.
鈥淗e said, 鈥榃e鈥檙e going to ask for your resignation,鈥欌 McCloskey recalled.
He filed a lawsuit against Thompson Mitchell for wrongful termination. One of the partners was Thomas Eagleton, a Democrat who had just returned to 狐狸视频 after three terms in the U.S. Senate.
鈥淚 figured I鈥檇 sue him first,鈥 McCloskey testified. 鈥淚 thought it would be fun.鈥
But he said the courts 鈥渄idn鈥檛 think much鈥 of his claim. He dismissed the suit against Thompson Mitchell in 1990. A judge dismissed the Lewis Rice suit the following year for lack of prosecution.
The couple鈥檚 possession of their mansion was 鈥渁 fun story,鈥 he testified. 鈥淚 tell it frequently, usually with 鈥 a little more detail and more humor.鈥
Family struggle
Mark McCloskey鈥檚 relationship with his family deteriorated. He would claim years later that his father, starting in 1989, 鈥渂ecame obsessed鈥 with the idea that his son had become wealthy by 鈥渟windling鈥 the assets his mother got in the divorce. He says the idea was put there by his sister, Patricia Richards, of Virginia.
In 1994, Mark McCloskey wrote a letter to his father about his 鈥渘iggardly attitude鈥 toward the 5 acres in Phelps County he had promised in the birthday card.
鈥淭he property is essentially worthless, it just struck me as bizarre that you would deny the existence of such a gift聽鈥,鈥 he wrote. 鈥淚 spent several months of my life living out of a tent and building a log cabin there.鈥
His father largely wrote him out of the will in 2008, sparking a family feud that would last eight years.
In March 2013, in Phelps County, Mark McCloskey sued his father and his father鈥檚 trust over the gift. The birthday card and earth, he claimed, were sufficient title because they met the legal definition of 鈥渓ivery of seisin,鈥 a ceremony performed in medieval England for the conveyance of land.
In 2016, a special judge ruled against him, writing that 鈥淓xhibit 1 attached to the petition is a birthday card, not a deed鈥 and that it was too late to claim ownership of part of the farm. The archaic legal claim, the judge ruled 鈥渄oes not operate as a matter of law to transfer title to real property.鈥
Mark McCloskey filed a defamation case against his father and sister in 2011, dismissed it in 2012, and refiled it in 2013. By the time of the final filing, Bruce McCloskey was living in a memory care unit in Ballwin; he died in 2014.
Mark McCloskey said his sister had spread rumors that he had held their mother hostage on Portland Place, denied her medical care, made her sleep on an iron cot soaked in urine, and plied her with alcohol until she died. He also said she claimed he was connected to organized crime, had tried to arrange for a contract killing of his sister, and had stolen 42 pounds of gold from his father.
He claimed his elderly father believed these things because he had lost his faculties, and repeated the falsehoods in public, damaging his reputation. He claimed the will was based on 鈥渋nsane delusions鈥 and his sister鈥檚 undue influence.
Patricia Richards declined to comment.
He made similar allegations against his father鈥檚 longtime caretaker in a separate defamation suit, which he later dismissed.
Weeks after Bruce McCloskey鈥檚 death, Patricia McCloskey sent a letter to the law firm handling his estate stating that any attempt to distribute the inheritance would likely be challenged in court.
Mark McCloskey dismissed the defamation case, but he sued聽his sister and his two brothers and their father鈥檚 trust again in 2016, accusing all of them of 鈥渢ortious interference鈥 for pressing their father to cut him out of an inheritance.
The siblings settled with their father鈥檚 trust paying Mark McCloskey $400,000, with all of them agreeing to drop all claims and never have contact with Mark McCloskey again.
Trouble on Portland
The lawsuit between the McCloskeys and the Portland trustees was the latest flare-up in a fight that has been going on almost since they moved in.
In 2002, the Portland Place Association sued to foreclose on the McCloskeys鈥 house because they were refusing to pay dues. Mark McCloskey would later say in a deposition that he and his wife had refused because the trustees 鈥渨eren鈥檛 doing something, which was their obligation under the Trust Agreement.鈥
The lawyer questioning him asked: Was it possible the issue was the trustees were allowing a gay couple to live there?
Mark McCloskey said he didn鈥檛 know. 鈥淚 know there has been an ongoing issue about the definition of single family in Missouri law, and that the (agreement) calling for exclusively single family residences wouldn鈥檛 allow, technically, unmarried heterosexual people to live on Portland Place. 鈥 I know that certain people on Portland Place, for political purposes, wanted to make it a gay issue.鈥
While taking a deposition of Portland Place trustee Daniel Ladenberger on Jan. 17, 2019, Mark McCloskey insisted it wasn鈥檛 up to trustees to decide what rules to enforce. Rules can鈥檛 be changed without 75% of the voters approving, he said.
鈥淒o you recognize that part of the duty of a trustee is to protect the rights of the minority; to enforce the trust agreement even if a majority but less than 75% of the people would like to do away with those provisions 鈥 even if it鈥檚 only 26% of the people who wish to have a provision enforced?鈥
After the McCloskeys bought their home on Portland Place, they built a 10-foot wall closing it off from Kingshighway, replacing a wall that would have allowed people to come through. In 2004, Dolgin wrote the McCloskeys a letter noting it had come to the trustees鈥 attention that the McCloskeys had hired a contractor to do tuck pointing on the wall.
鈥淣o individual resident is authorized to do work on Portland Place property without the permission of the trustees,鈥 Dolgin wrote.
Mark McCloskey responded that he would no more ask permission to perform work on the wall than he would on his house. 鈥淏efore you glibly throw around such statements in the future, produce some authority to verify it or be prepared to spend Portland Place Association money in defending a suit for slander of title. This isn鈥檛 a game, and we aren鈥檛 children.鈥
Watkins, the lawyer representing the couple, is a friend of theirs and former neighbor who sued the Portland Place trustees in 2010 with a claim that he had tried to get them to take down a sick oak tree which later fell and damaged his property. Watkins lost and was ordered to pay the trustees court costs of $52,000.
A rocky road
The McCloskeys own a large property in Franklin County and have had conflicts with neighbors who access their homes by a gravel road cutting across the McCloskeys鈥 acreage.
In 2013, Mark McCloskey saw a gravel truck on the road preparing to 鈥済rade and ditch鈥 the road, and the couple, without notice to their neighbors, sought and obtained a temporary restraining order against them in Franklin County circuit court.
One of the defendants produced records of an easement indicating they could use the road. A legal battle dragged on for nearly two years, with one of the neighbors racking up $70,000 in legal bills and $9,000 in surveying costs.
That neighbor asked for sanctions against the McCloskeys for 鈥渃ommitting a fraud鈥 with their claim. The case settled with all parties paying their own costs.
In 2019, the McCloskeys sued another neighbor with a squatter鈥檚 rights claim to 0.41 acres that were fenced off incorrectly and had been maintained by McCloskey and previous owners even though they did not have a legal title to it.
鈥淭he Parcel has been continuously possessed by the Plaintiffs and their predecessors in title for a period far in excess of 10 years and such possession has been, in fact, hostile, actual, open and notorious, exclusive, and continuous,鈥 the McCloskeys claimed. The suit is pending.
The McCloskeys also evicted two tenants from a modular home on their property in a period of just over two years. The first, a single woman with three children and her boyfriend, had lived there six months in January 2018 when the McCloskeys filed for eviction, claiming one rent check had bounced. The woman moved out and did not appear in court, and the McCloskeys got a $6,247 default judgment against the couple, which included attorneys fees and rent for the remaining months of the lease.
In an interview with the Post-Dispatch, the tenant denied she had missed a rent payment. She said she had showed up in court for the eviction hearing and that Mark McCloskey told her she had no chance of winning, so she left. She said she had no idea she owed them that much.
The second tenant signed a lease for $950 per month last November, and failed to pay rent in April and May. The McCloskeys filed an eviction suit on May 12 and Mark McCloskey filed an affidavit stating that he was not barred by federal law from evicting someone during the COVID-19 pandemic because the unit was not part of a federal housing rental program.
The tenant did not appear in court. A judge gave her until July 1 to clear out, and the McCloskeys got an $8,299 judgment against her for attorneys fees and the remainder of the lease.
A ruined life
While that tenant was clearing out, the McCloskeys had their encounter with protesters. 鈥淢y life has been ruined,鈥 Mark McCloskey told CNN host Chris Cuomo two days later, as he defended his actions.
On June 28, about 200 protesters filled the Maryland-Kingshighway intersection, chanting, 鈥淭his is what community looks like 鈥 this is what democracy looks like.鈥
The group moved south to Lindell Boulevard and filled the intersection for several more minutes. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 get it, shut it down!鈥
The protest moved north on Kingshighway again. At Portland Place, protester Derk Brown鈥檚 live feed shows he is one of the first protesters to pass through the iron gate held open by protester Tory Russell.
Although the McCloskeys have displayed photos of a crumpled gate as evidence the protesters broke it down, the feed shows the gate is intact. It was not clear when it was damaged.
The first few protesters who enter the private neighborhood swerve away from the McCloskey house to walk in the street.
Immediately, Brown鈥檚 feed captures Mark McCloskey under a massive portico on the east side of his mansion. 鈥淗ey!鈥 he can be heard shouting. 鈥淧rivate neighborhood! Get the hell out of my neighborhood!鈥
None of the protesters are on his property 鈥 even the disputed triangle.
Brown zooms in on McCloskey, who is wearing a pink Brooks Brothers polo shirt, and narrates: 鈥淵鈥檃ll see? On my live feed 鈥 he got his rifle.鈥
Mark McCloskey shouts, 鈥淕et out! Get out! Get out! Private property!鈥
A chant builds: 鈥淲hose streets? Our streets!鈥
Moments later, Patricia McCloskey can be seen in her front yard in her bare feet with a silver handgun, waving it at the protesters.
鈥淲e鈥檙e gonna move, calm down!鈥 someone yells.
鈥淧ut that gun away,鈥 someone else yells.
She comes closer to Brown, pointing the gun left and right. 鈥淕o!鈥 she yells. 鈥淕o!鈥
One of the protesters yells, 鈥淲e got kids in here! We got children!鈥
A chant builds: 鈥淓at the rich!鈥 She keeps pointing the gun.
鈥淲hy are you threatening?鈥 someone asks.
鈥淵ou need to calm down!鈥 someone else says.
鈥淧ut your goddamn gun down!鈥 someone yells.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e a coward, bitch!鈥 a woman yells.
鈥淣obody wants to hurt you,鈥 another woman yells.
About 13 minutes go by with the McCloskeys on their front lawn in bare feet and protesters mocking them or asking them why they are threatening them with weapons.
The protest moves on to its destination: Mayor Lyda Krewson鈥檚 house.
Fox News host Sean Hannity that protesters said 鈥渢hey were going to kill us 鈥 going to burn down the house, that they were going to be living in our house after I was dead. They pointed to different rooms and said that鈥檚 gonna be my bedroom, that鈥檚 gonna to be the living room and I鈥檓 gonna be taking a shower in that room 鈥.鈥
Mark McCloskey said the flyer for the 鈥渞iot鈥 suggested that in addition to marching to Krewson鈥檚 house, marchers were planning 鈥渁 special surprise 鈥 something extra.鈥
鈥淭hat something extra was us,鈥 Mark McCloskey said.
Joel Currier of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report, which was originally published on July 12, 2020.