Elkhart's McCloskey Law Office facing harassment in case of mistaken identity

ELKHART, Ind. --- Activists nationwide have been harassing the McCloskey Law Office in Elkhart in a case of mistaken identity since a couple with the same last name was recorded pointing guns at Black Lives Matter demonstrators in St. Louis.

The couple in St. Louis, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, run the McCloskey Law Center in St. Louis.

Martin McCloskey runs the McCloskey Law Office in Elkhart.

People have been leaving negative reviews on Yelp and Google and have been receiving threatening phone calls, according to attorney, Martin McCloskey.

It all started with an email Sunday evening and ever since, hundreds of emails, reviews and calls have come in.

“We’re coming in strapped this time and we’re coming in and we’re going to get you,” Paralegal, Lisa Weimer, described one call.

That call, just one of many similar messages left for the McCloskey law firm.

“You know, they were threatening, they were vulgar,” Attorney Martin McCloskey said. “Wishing people dead.”

McCloskey is now forced to explain to each person that his firm is located in Indiana, not Missouri.

“I’m in Indiana,” McCloskey explained.

The threats have come in one after the other after Black Lives Matter protestors, hundreds of miles away, in St. Louis, went through a gated neighborhood on the way to the Mayor’s home over the weekend.

A lawyer couple, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, live in that same neighborhood and came out armed, telling protestors that they were in private property and needed to leave.

That incident has since gone viral and Elkhart attorney McCloskey, who happens to have the same last name, has gotten caught up in the reaction.

McCloskey and his team have made it clear to all callers that they have the wrong person.

The McCloskey office in Elkhart has no affiliation with the McCloskey Law Center in St. Louis.

“Some of them have been apologetic and they say ‘We’re very sorry,’ and others have said, ‘Well, you have the same last name so it doesn’t matter,’” McCloskey said.

 “We were getting phone calls saying we were racist and saying, all kinds of just nasty, horrible things being threatened all day from calls all over all across the country,” Weimer said.

Dozens of people took to the internet to leave bad reviews, while others, have realized that McCloskey is completely innocent in it all and coming to his defense. The vulgar messages, however, have been overwhelming.

“That’s been the majority, though, the ones that are threatening and using vulgar language and saying bad things,” McCloskey said.

The biggest fear is that local residents will not realize the two are different and show up at the Elkhart law firm.

“We don’t know what they’re going to do or if somebody local is going to see it and think that it’s us, and come out here so we just kind of been on alert,” Weimer said.