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Bush Pardons Denver Lawyer, a Cocaine Offender

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Tue Dec 20, 2005 at 11:39:11 PM EST
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President Bush has granted a pardon to a former drug offender and current Denver lawyer, Wendy St. Charles.

A Denver lawyer was pardoned Tuesday by President Bush for drug-related crimes she committed more than two decades ago. Wendy St. Charles, now 49, was among 11 people who received presidential pardons.

In 1984, she was sentenced to four years in prison in Illinois for conspiracy to conduct a narcotics enterprise and distribution of cocaine, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. She was also put on four years of special parole and four years of probation, which were to run consecutively with her sentence.

Why Ms. Charles? My surmise is her employer lobbied hard for her.

Currently, she is a licensed attorney who works for MDC Holdings, Inc., the largest Denver-based home-building firm and one of the top 10 home builders in the U.S.

Larry Mizel, chair of the MDC Holdings Inc., and his wife, Carol, are major supporters of the Republican Party and its candidates, donating thousands of dollars to their campaigns. Michael Touff, MDC's senior vice president and general counsel, declined to comment.

Bush's office says the 11 pardonees had this in common.

"Each demonstrated full acceptance and responsibility and remorse for their offense, and each has repaid his debt to society," he said.

Update: The White House press release on the pardons is here. [Via Sentencing Law and Policy which provides analysis and lots of links.]

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    Bush Pardons Denver Lawyer, a Cocaine Offender | 13 comments (13 topical)
    Re: Bush Pardons Denver Lawyer, a Cocaine Offender (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Dec 21, 2005 at 12:09:04 AM EST
    She does not need a pardon at all... I guess Bush is trying to do the same thing that Clinton did just before Bill left the office.

    Re: Bush Pardons Denver Lawyer, a Cocaine Offender (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Dec 21, 2005 at 04:22:35 AM EST
    Maybe she's Bush's supplier.

    Re: Bush Pardons Denver Lawyer, a Cocaine Offender (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Dec 21, 2005 at 05:10:05 AM EST
    OK, it was 20 years ago! Get over it! The whole "she did cocaine in 1984, let's hang that bell around her neck forever" attitude just knots my shorts. Let's not mince words here. I hate Bush and the Rove he rode in on. I don't doubt that this pardon had major political underpinnings. But for Ms. Charles, Congratulations!!. I wish the same good fortune for the rest of us, even we who can't afford to buy our pardons.

    Re: Bush Pardons Denver Lawyer, a Cocaine Offender (none / 0) (#4)
    by jimakaPPJ on Wed Dec 21, 2005 at 05:31:37 AM EST
    ytterby - Guess "No good deed gos unpunished" applies.

    Re: Bush Pardons Denver Lawyer, a Cocaine Offender (none / 0) (#5)
    by Edger on Wed Dec 21, 2005 at 06:03:09 AM EST
    "Each demonstrated full acceptance and responsibility and remorse for their offense, and each has repaid his debt to society," [Bush] said. Nice to know he'll recognize Wendy St. Charles and 10 others for doing what he is incapable of himself.

    Re: Bush Pardons Denver Lawyer, a Cocaine Offender