Legal Docs: St. Louis Prosecutor Tampered With Evidence In McCloskey Gun Case

[mystery-ak]

 Legal Docs: St. Louis Prosecutor Tampered With Evidence In McCloskey Gun Case
July 23, 2020 By Tristan Justice

The gun Patricia McCloskey waved at a mob surrounding her home last month was inoperable at the time, but the St. Louis prosecutor’s office ordered the city’s crime lab to re-assemble it into working order after confiscating the firearm, according to a local Missouri TV station reporting Wednesday.

Missouri law requires the government to prove firearms be “readily” capable of fatal harm in order to score a conviction based on the charges filed against McCloskey and her husband this week for their attempt to use legal weapons to deter rioters from their home. Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner charged Patricia and her husband Mark McCloskey each with unlawful use of a weapon, a felony that can carry up to four years in prison, for defending their $1.15 million home.

more
https://thefederalist.com/2020/07/23/legal-docs-st-louis-prosecutor-tampered-with-evidence-in-mccloskey-gun-case/

[Cyber Liberty]

So, how can the Defense prove the State tampered with the evidence?

[PeteS in CA]

Previous thread, http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,409118.0.html

So, how can the Defense prove the State tampered with the evidence?

The crime lab has records of instructions given to them and things done, including pictures and maybe even video. If this comes to trial, a crime lab tech will have to testify, and if necessary be given the choice during cross-examination between telling exactly what was done under whose orders or committing perjury ("Nice career you got there ... do you really want to destroy it by committing perjury?").

[Cyber Liberty]

Previous thread, http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,409118.0.html

The crime lab has records of instructions given to them and things done, including pictures and maybe even video. If this comes to trial, a crime lab tech will have to testify, and if necessary be given the choice during cross-examination between telling exactly what was done under whose orders or committing perjury ("Nice career you got there ... do you really want to destroy it by committing perjury?").

Especially if it can be proven by receipts from a gunsmith who performed the modifications that rendered the weapon inert.  Hopefully McCloskey had a smithee do it.

[Fishrrman]

"Tampering with the evidence".

It's not illegal when WE do it...!

[XenaLee]

So, how can the Defense prove the State tampered with the evidence?

The gun was "disabled" for a previous court case so the gun could be brought into the court.   That has to be documented somewhere (court records?). 

I am really curious as to what the other court case was about now.   But nevertheless, the evidence tampering should result in the firing of Gardner and Chris Hinckley.   There has to be paperwork on that order....if it hasn't been "tampered with" (destroyed) by now.

Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Hinckley ordered crime lab staff members to field strip the handgun, finding it had been assembled incorrectly, according to the documents filed Monday. The firing pin spring was put in front of the firing pin, which was backward, raising questions about the gun's ability to fire. Firearms experts then reassembled the gun correctly and found it worked by test-firing it.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/st-louis-prosecutor-instructed-crime-lab-experts-to-reassemble-patricia-mccloskeys-gun