‘Career drunk driver’ pardoned
Governor wiped out felony before stepping down
TROY, Mich. — In his final days in office, Gov. Rick Snyder wiped out the felony drunken-driving conviction of a man who pleaded for a pardon so he could seek a promotion as the next president of the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants.
Jim Jagger’s application for a pardon sailed swiftly: He filed in late October, got a hearing in December and won Snyder’s blessing before Christmas, despite opposition from the Oakland County prosecutor, who vigorously claimed it was “special treatment” for a “career drunk driver,” according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
“The average Joe out there is not going to get a pardon” for the same crime, prosecutor Jessica Cooper told the AP. “Nor should they.”
A pardon is an extraordinary tool in the state constitution that makes a conviction disappear.
During Snyder’s eight years as governor, people filed more than 4,000 applications for a pardon or commutation, which shortens a prison sentence. He granted fewer than 100.
It’s not publicly known why the governor or his aides were so interested in helping Jagger, who makes $144,000 a year as a vice president at the CPA group.
But with Snyder’s term nearing an end, his staff put the case “at the top of the stack and said, ‘Process this one,’” said Chris Gautz, a spokesman at the Corrections Department, where pardon files are screened.
Jagger, 54, of Royal Oak, had four drunken-driving convictions from 1989 to 2007. It’s typically a misdemeanor, but he faced a felony charge after the last arrest because of his repeat offenses. No one was injured in the incidents. Judge Michael Warren sentenced him to 135 days in jail after an assistant prosecutor called Jagger a “danger to the public.”
Jagger served his sentence, but the pardon means the felony is off the books.
His desire for a pardon is detailed in documents obtained by the AP under a public records request.
Jagger explained it during a
Dec. 12 hearing with the Michigan parole board, which makes recommendations to the governor and voted in Jagger’s favor. Since 2016, he has been senior vice president and chief marketing officer at the Michigan CPA organization. The Troy-based group serves 18,000plus members by offering career workshops, monitoring industry trends and influencing laws and accounting rules in Lansing.
It wasn’t the first time that Snyder, a Republican, had used his power to clear a drunken driver. In 2014, he pardoned Alan Gocha, a $250,000-a-year lawyer with political connections to Republicans. Gocha said the misdemeanor was making it harder to work and to travel outside the U.S.