Snyder Gives Rare Pardon to Politically Connected Lawyer

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder pardoned an Oakland County attorney after reportedly expressing interest in pardoning individuals whose convictions interfered with their ability to work or travel. (Photo via Creative Commons)

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Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has pardoned a politically connected Oakland County lawyerwho serves on a state board focusing on job creation, erasing a drunken driving conviction.

Alan Gocha Jr.’s was one of only 11 pardons granted by the governor in December, the Associated Press reports. Gocha’s application for pardon was one of about 750 the state’s parole board had recommended.

Snyder, who appointed Gocha (pronounced Go-SHAY) to the Investment Talent Board in 2011, said he granted the rare pardon after a “very rigorous process” both by the parole board and his staff.

Snyder said he knows Gocha, but the attorney has never contributed to his campaign. The governor also said he didn’t meet with Gocha about the issue.

Though Gocha didn’t donate directly to Snyder’s campaign, his law firm is the agent for the private equity firm ETC Capital, which gave $2.5 million to the Republican Governor’s Association and $276,000 to the Michigan Company, the AP said.

ETC is backed by 5-hour Energy’s billionaire founder, Manoj Bahargava.

Gocha, 53, first applied for a pardon in April 2012, about four years after pleading guilty to driving while impaired charges related to a 2007 Bloomfield Township stop. Police said he veered from his lane of traffic, and refused to take a roadside sobriety test.

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He told the parole board he refused the test out of “sheer panic,” but agreed to take the test an hour later at the police station, where his blood-alcohol level was at 0.11 percent, above the legal limit of 0.08.

He claimed police had no reason to stop him that night, but Judge Kimberly Small disagreed in his trial after viewing police dash-cam video that clearly showed half of his vehicle in the oncoming left turn lane.

Gocha pleaded guilty to impaired driving, then unsuccessfully appealed the conviction to higher courts. After losing, he began seeking a pardon to erase a criminal record he said has been a “black cloud” that inhibited deals with Wall Street bankers and limited his ability to travel internationally.

His first request was turned down in 2012, but the parole board reportedly told him to continue applying.

Russ Marlan, a deputy director at the Corrections Department who oversees the state’s parole board, said Snyder was interested in “potential pardons where the conviction was inhibiting them from advancing economically or was preventing them from getting a job or was preventing them from financial freedom – from moving past some obstacle in their life,”

Gocha declined to be interviewed by the AP.

“I’m sort of puzzled that it’s of any interest,” he said.