[420 Girl]

SANTEE: Anthony Foglio Jr., associate pastor at Sonrise Community Church in Santee, knew he had God's pardon years ago for selling marijuana.

Yesterday, he received President Bush's pardon. Foglio was one of 15 people nationwide to receive presidential pardons for past federal crimes. The Office of the Pardon Attorney, under the U.S. Justice Department, called him with the news.

“It sure feels good to have that mercy expressed to me,” Foglio, 41, said last night. “It's God's mercy. It's an undeserved gift.”

Foglio's crime was selling marijuana – hundreds of pounds. He would buy it in Imperial Beach and sell it in West Virginia while he lived in both places, he said.

He said his father, Anthony Foglio, founding pastor of Sonrise, told him in 1994 that he should turn himself in. “Then it was like to Lord reached in and changed my heart,” Foglio said. He pleaded guilty in West Virginia federal court to one count of selling marijuana. In 1996, he was given three years' probation, with no prison time.

About 18 months ago, a former college friend started the paperwork for Foglio's pardon. The FBI investigated, and clemency was approved.

Foglio has been a licensed pastor for three years and sometimes preaches about his troubled past.

“It causes me to not judge anyone,” he said. “I think mercy is greater than justice.” –P.R. & S.D.

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