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City businessman has record cleared in old cocaine case

MARQUETTE — Among hundreds of recipients granted clemency by President Barack Obama this week, Thomas Eric Wahlstrom of Marquette was pardoned Tuesday of a 1995 conviction for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

Wahlstrom was sentenced to six months in prison, three years’ supervised release and a $5,000 fine on July 19, 1995, according to the White House website.

A presidential pardon is the constitutional right of a sitting U.S. president to forgive a federal crime.

An Associated Press article from July 19, 1995, states Wahlstrom, a Marquette businessman, could have gotten 20 years and a $1 million fine for the conviction. But as part of his plea bargain with the U.S. attorney, he agreed to cooperate with drug investigations and act as an undercover source, letting police tape his conversations with drug suspects.

Thomas Wahlstrom is listed as the owner of Elizabeth’s Chop House at 113 S. Front St., according to the property and land listing on the city of Marquette’s website.

Wahlstrom did not immediately return a Mining Journal phone call Thursday.

Obama granted commutation of sentences to 209 individuals and pardons to 64 individuals on Tuesday, according to the White House website. Obama’s nearly 1,400 commutation grants is more than the total number of commutations issued by the past 12 presidents combined. Including Tuesday’s, Obama has now granted a total of 212 pardons.

Clemency is considered an extraordinary remedy, granted only after the president has concluded that a particular individual has demonstrated a readiness to make use of his or her second chance, according to whitehouse.gov.

Prominent recipients of Tuesday’s pardons and commutations included Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, whose 35-year sentence for passing secret documents to WikiLeaks was commuted to seven years; baseball great Willie McCovey, whose conviction for failing to pay taxes on money he made signing autographs was pardoned; and Oscar Lopez Rivera of the Armed Forces of National Liberation, whose sentence related to the failed struggle for Puerto Rican independence in the 1970s was commuted.

Mary Wardell can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248. Her email address is mwardell@miningjournal.net.

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