President pardons man for turning pennies into dimes
Tom Wayne
Obama Pardons Ex-Marine Convicted of Cutting Pennies in 1963
Dec. 5, 2010
Ronald Foster, 66, is one of nine people pardoned by the president
last week. He thought the incident, in which he and 16 others cut
pennies into dimes to use in cigarette and pop machines on base, was
resolved 4 decades ago.
For 42 years, Ronald Foster didn't know he had a felony conviction for
cutting up pennies.
It seemed like a nickel-and-dime crime at the time. President Obama
apparently agreed; last week he pardoned Foster and eight other people
for unrelated crimes.
Foster stands out among the list of convicted thieves, drug dealers
and users. In 1963, he was earning $82 a month as a Marine at Camp
Lejeune, N.C., when he and 16 others hatched a scheme to cut pennies
into dimes so they could use them in vending machines, he said.
"We cut the lip off, and we were using them in the barracks only, in
the vending machines -- washing machines, cigarette machines, pop
machines," said Foster, 66, a retired mill worker from Beaver Falls,
Pa.
"Back then, a pack of cigarettes cost 20 or 30 cents a pack, so you
could get a pack for 3 cents," he said, chuckling.
But the Secret Service caught them. They were marched into a courtroom
on base, where their commanding officer entered a guilty plea on their
behalf to mutilation of coins, he said.
Foster was sentenced to a year of probation and a $20 fine, and he
thought the incident was over. He served in Vietnam the following year
and left the Marine Corps a decade later to join the Pennsylvania
National Guard. He got a job at a plant that manufactures ceilings
near his home in Beaver Falls, married and had a son.
Then, in 2005, he applied for a gun permit and learned he had a felony
conviction. He applied for a presidential pardon 18 months ago.
Jerry Dennis
> http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-coin-pardon-2010...
Thanks for the story. Ever since I heard about this I wondered,
"WTF?" Even now that the details have come to light, I have to ask,
"WTF?"
Jerry
It's killing me NOT to make a political rant out of this. 8-)
mazorj
"Jerry Dennis" <JDen...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:5c5e9f8a-cedd-49aa...@t35g2000yqj.googlegroups.com...
==============================
Aw, go ahead and cut loose, Jerry!
I'm really curious to see how you'd turn this into a screed against Obama,
liberalism, or even government in general. Even though JFK and/or LBJ were
in the White House at the time and it was Obama who pardoned him.
;-)
Jerry Dennis
> "Jerry Dennis" <JDen1...@aol.com> wrote in message
>
> - Show quoted text -
Actually, it's too easy, but I'm not anti-Obama on this one. To be
fair, II think he did right in this case. As you say, convicted
during the Kennedy-Johnson administrations (Democrats), ignored by
Nixon (R), Ford (R) (who pardoned Nixon BTW), Carter (D), Reagan (R),
Bush #41 (R), Clinton (D), and Bush #43 (R). Was there no compassion
for one of our military members through any of those previous
administrations? Oh, wait, that was during the Vietnam Era, when it
seemed all military were ignored, hidden, shunned and forgotten. And
Congress Critters can cheat on their taxes, have sex with child pages,
lie under oath, and get nothing but a slap on the wrist? Where's
justice? Rant-rant-rant. Okay, maybe not that big a rant, but, hey,
I tried.
Jerry
Tom Wayne
Apparently, one has to apply for a pardon in order to receive one, and
this fellow didn't apply until the Obama administration, since he
didn't realize he still had a problem until recent years. If he had
applied during an earlier administration, he may well have received a
pardon sooner.
mopa
because it takes a long time to get a president pardon, Bush did not
receive the papers in time and Obama did. It is great to hear the guy
did receive a pardon for such a silly crime. For what our military
people do, just give them free cigs, with as much money we waste on 10
million dollar a piece bombs, billion dollar plus fighters, what is a
few cases of cigs? we owe them that much!