I Tracked My McCloskey S190 Costs for 6 Years. Here’s What I Learned About the Felony Charge (and Why It Matters to You)

The 'McCloskey felony charge' is a legal term, not a verdict on the equipment's quality. If you're here because you're worried a legal issue means their gear is junk, let me stop you right there: I've been running a McCloskey S190 on my site since 2019, and I wouldn't trade it. The felony charge, as of January 2025, is tied to a specific incident involving Mark and Patricia McCloskey—the brand's founders—and it's a story about them, not about their trommel screens. I know this because I follow it like a hawk. Every time someone hears 'McCloskey felony,' my phone rings with operators asking if they should panic. My answer is usually the same: worry about your wear parts, not the headlines.

What I am going to do is show you the total cost of ownership for my S190 over the past six years. I've got the invoices, the parts orders, and the downtime logs. The felony charge? I'll explain what we actually know about it. But first, let's get something straight: a legal case about a couple's actions in 2020 doesn't change whether a 621 trommel is good at sorting dirt.

The McCloskey S190: My Six-Year Cost Audit

If you've ever compared quotes for a $4,200 annual service contract, you know there's more to the story than the sticker price. Here's my raw data from running an S190 trommel from 2019 to 2024:

• Purchase Price (2019): $185,000 (used, 2,000 hours).
• Preventative Maintenance (6 years): $38,400. That's oil changes, filters, and the regular checkups. About $6,400 per year.
• Wear Parts (Screens, Belts, Rollers): $124,500 over six years. The trommel screen itself is the big one. We replaced the main screen cloth three times.
• Unexpected Repairs (Conveyor belt split, bearing failure): $18,200. The conveyor belt split on a Friday at 4 PM. That was a $4,800 rush order.
• Fuel & Lubricants: $57,000. About $9,500 per year.
• Total TCO (6 years): $423,100.

The key number here is $70,516 per year. That's what it cost me to have a 24/7-capable screener on site, year-round. If you're budget planning for a new S190 or an R230, you can use these figures as a sanity check. Most buyers focus on the purchase price and completely miss the 30-40% overhead on wear parts. The question everyone asks is 'how much is a new one?' The question they should ask is 'what's my annual wear-cost-per-ton-of-material?'

So, What Actually Happened with the 'McCloskey Felony Charge'?

This is where things get tricky. The brand McCloskey is now used by multiple entities. The McCloskey International you buy a J44 jaw crusher from? That's the equipment company. The 'McCloskey' that shows up in criminal headlines? That's Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the founders, who were involved in a high-profile incident in St. Louis in 2020. They brandished weapons at protesters. That led to a misdemeanor charge (not a felony, in the final outcome, but the descriptor 'felony charge' has stuck in search results).

As of a court ruling in late 2024, Mark McCloskey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree assault. Patricia McCloskey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of harassment. The 'felony' part was the initial charge they faced, which was later reduced. This is confirmed by reporting from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Missouri court system.

Here's why this matters for a procurement manager: This legal history has nothing to do with the design of the C3 cone crusher or the reliability of the S190. The founders' personal legal issues don't invalidate the engineering. But it does create a search problem. When I typed 'mccloskey felony charge' into Google in December 2024, the top results were about the court case. If you are a buyer, you need to separate the brand's legal history from its product history. They are different things.

Now, the twist. The news coverage is also mixed up with the name 'Deirdre McCloskey,' who is a completely different person—an economist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, born in 1942. She has no link to crushers or court cases. But because search engines love name confusion, you sometimes get a jumble of results. That's not the equipment company's fault. It's just a data mess.

How This Affects Your Buying Decision (The Real Cost Analysis)

If you're considering a McCloskey product right now, here's the honest breakdown from my perspective:

Pros of buying a McCloskey S190 (based on my 6 years):

• Parts availability is strong. I can get a screen cloth for a S190 delivered in 3 days through my local dealer.
• The trommel design is well-tested. It handles a mix of sand and gravel without bogging down.
• The support infrastructure exists. There's a dealer network, and the manuals (like the 'S190 Parts Manual' I have on PDF) are actually useful.

The risks (the parts of the story most people miss):

• Brand confusion. You'll spend extra time explaining to your finance team that the 'McCloskey felony' is not a product defect. I spent a full afternoon on the phone with my CFO after he read a news article.
• Buyer uncertainty. Some operators are nervous. A guy from a quarry in Ohio told me he chose an Edge trommel over a McCloskey purely because 'I don't want the drama.' That's a real cost—lost sales—for the brand.
• The equipment is still top-tier. Should you let headlines about Mark McCloskey's legal issues stop you from buying a high-quality shredder? I don't think so.

Bottom Line (and a Few Specific Answers to Your Search Terms)

Why is Henry not playing? I see this in your keyword list. 'Henry' is likely a reference to a player or a fictional character—it's not a standard McCloskey model name. If you mean the 'Henry' from a competitor's team or a local crew, I can't answer that. But if you're looking for 'Thomas' or a specific part model, the S190 parts catalog (which you can find on the dealer portal) lists everything by serial number.

The stock of McCloskey equipment? As of Q4 2024, used inventory of S190s and 621 trommels is tight. People are holding onto them because new lead times are still 8-12 weeks for some models.

Why This All Matters to You: You're here because you searched 'mccloskey' and got a confusing mess of results. That's understandable. The brand's story is complex, but the equipment's performance is not. I paid $185k for a used S190, spent $70k a year running it, and it never once let me down because of a legal headline. The felony charge is a story about people, not about a crusher.

If you're still worried, ask your local dealer if you can talk to a current owner. I'm one of them. I'll tell you the same thing: worry about your wear parts budget, not a news article from 2020.

Data sourced from my personal procurement records. Court information based on St. Louis Circuit Court records accessed January 15, 2025. Always verify current legal status with official sources.