Eric Charles Blanke pleaded guilty to a counterfeiting charge in 1995 and has been trying to put his mistake behind him ever since.
Blanke, 42, found that living with a felony conviction on his record wasn’t easy.
“When you have a 6-year-old daughter come up and ask, ‘Who did you vote for,’ and you couldn’t vote, it is hard,” he said shortly after news broke that he was among those pardoned Tuesday by President George W. Bush.
The Parker resident said he was innocent of the charge leveled against him. He wouldn’t explain, other than to say he “got involved with some of the wrong people.”
When the government offered him a plea bargain, he said, he took it without understanding the consequences.
Blanke was sentenced to three years of probation and 50 hours of community service when he was sentenced in U.S. District Court in California, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“You don’t understand how nice those rights are until you don’t have them,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday. “I have tried to put it all behind me and have a great life. It has been embarrassing me and my family for 15 years.”
He added: “I have worked hard at the same job in the same company for 15 years trying to be a productive member of society, and I have done that.”
List: 20 people granted a pardon or commutation
By The Associated Press
The 19 pardons and one commutation that President George W. Bush
granted Tuesday before leaving the White House to spend the
holidays at Camp David:
unregistered firearm and cocaine distribution.
transport illegal immigrants.
import, possess, distribute and dispense marijuana.
and possess with intent to distribute marijuana.
possession of stolen mail.
abetting embezzlement of bank funds.
counterfeit goods.
crime.
defraud the United States.
endorsement on a U.S. Treasury check.
affecting Social Security benefits.
and the exportation of a military aircraft to a foreign country in
violation of the Neutrality Act of 1939.
a crime.
absence and missing the movement of a U.S. Navy ship.
matter.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and mail fraud.
violation of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act.
Moines, Iowa. Prior was convicted of possession of methamphetamine
with intent to distribute. He was sentenced in 1996 in the Southern
District of Iowa to life in prison with 10 years of supervised
release. His prison sentence is now set to expire Feb. 23, 2009,
but the terms of the commutation leave intact and in effect the 10
years of supervised release with all its conditions.
