Dec 24, 2002 4 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – A Tennessee man convicted of selling moonshine 40 years ago and a former Indiana postal worker who stole $10.90 from the mail more than 30 years ago are among seven people pardoned by President Bush, the White House said Monday. The pardons, the first by Bush, were all granted to people convicted of relatively minor crimes. None was a major political donor.

The former postal worker, Olgen Williams of Indianapolis, said he stole the money to support a drug habit. He spent one year in jail. Following his release, Williams became a born-again Christian, earned three collegiate degrees and became executive director of Christamore House, an Indianapolis community center.

Williams first applied for a pardon about two years ago, filling out a lengthy application and providing letters of reference from friends and co-workers. “It’s one of those things, a validation, that a person in my situation wanted to have,” he said.

Kenneth Copley of Lyles, Tenn., received two years probation for a 1962 conviction for selling untaxed whiskey. Many of his neighbors made moonshine during “hard times,” he said. Copley said he didn’t think much about his conviction until he was turned down for a gun permit because of the conviction. He said he hired a lawyer and began seeking the pardon in 1998.

Both men said they wanted to send thank you notes to Bush.

“I know he didn’t have to do it,” Williams said. “I’m grateful and happy and I wish I could say it to him personally.”

Recent presidents have touched off controversies with their use of the power to grant pardons.

President Clinton left office two years ago touched by scandal after a spree of last-minute pardons, including one for fugitive financier Marc Rich, the ex-husband of Democratic donor Denise Rich.

The current president’s father left office under a similar cloud after pardoning former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five other Iran-Contra figures. One of those pardoned, Elliott Abrams, who pleaded guilty in 1991 to withholding information from Congress, now heads the National Security Council’s office for Near East and North African affairs.

The current president chose seven little-known individuals who had long ago paid the price for their crimes. In addition to Copley and Williams, Bush pardoned a Jehovah’s Witnesses minister who declined to be drafted into the military in 1957 and a man who stole copper wire.

Bush issued the pardons Friday but they weren’t announced until Monday.

“What all these cases have in common is that each pardon recipient committed a relatively minor offense many years ago, completed his prison sentence or probation and paid any fine, and has gone on to live an exemplary life and to be a positive force in his community,” White House spokeswoman Ashley Snee said.

Bush is just the second president since the end of World War II to wait until near the end of his second year in office to issue any pardons; Clinton was the first. Since becoming president, Bush has rejected 2,673 requests for pardons or commutations.

The first President Bush issued nine pardons during his first 20 months in the White House, compared with 85 for Ronald Reagan, 162 for Jimmy Carter and 253 for Gerald Ford.

The others pardoned by the current president include:

– Harlan Paul Dobbs of Portland, Ore. Sentenced to three months in jail in 1966 for conspiracy involving the sale of grain stolen from his employer.

– Stephen James Jackson of Picayune, Miss. Sentenced to three years probation and fined $500 in 1993 for altering an odometer.

– Douglas Harley Rogers of Brookfield, Wis. A Jehovah’s Witnesses minister sentenced to two years in jail in 1957 for failing to report for military induction.

-Walter F. Schuerer of Amana, Iowa. Fined $15,000 in 1989 for making a false statement to the Social Security Administration regarding his employment.

-Paul Herman Wieser of Tacoma, Wash. Sentenced to 18 months probation in 1972 for stealing $38,000 worth of copper wire.

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Associated Press writers Scott Lindlaw in Washington, Russ Oates in Nashville, Tenn., and Rachel Kipp in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

Justice Department: http://www.doj.gov