Jeremy Giefer May Be Tim Pawlenty’s Willie Horton

Tim Pawlenty voted with two other members of the Minnesota Board of Pardons to wipe clean the criminal sexual record of Jeremy Giefer (h/t RAW STORY).

In 1993, Giefer, then 19 years old, had fathered a daughter with his girlfriend, who was only 14 years old at the time of conception. He pleaded guilty to statutory rape, but claimed to the Star Tribune that he was being unfairly singled out for sticking around and supporting his girlfriend when other men would have bolted.

Giefer served 45 days in jail for the transgression, and 15 years later asked for a pardon extraordinary, the term for a pardon granted to someone who has already served the sentence for the crime they committed. With a pardon extraordinary, Giefer would no longer have to report his conviction, except in special circumstances.

Giefer was granted a pardon on the basis that he married the woman he was accused of statutorily raping and they were raising their children together.

Flash forward to this month [November 2010], when Giefer was charged with another sex crime, this time for allegedly molesting the daughter he conceived with the underage girl he statutory raped and married.

In fact, the complaint alleges, Giefer had been raping his daughter for about six years when Pawlenty granted him his extraordinary pardon.

According to the complaint filed in Blue Earth County Court, the girl, identified only as C.G., told Blue Earth detectives the sexual abuse started when she was nine years old.

Giefer didn’t deny all the charges.

Yes, Giefer told a detective, he had put his daughter on birth control pills. Yes, he had grabbed her breasts, but “it was just messing around.” Yes, he had exposed his penis to her, but it was “accidental.” And yes, while on top of his daughter in her bed while “wrestling,” he had kissed her neck and stuck his hand inside her shorts and touched her bare vagina.

Remarkably, one of the reasons Giefer wanted a pardon was so he and his wife could open a day care center. Pawlenty has fashioned himself as a tough-on-crime governor, with special attention to sex crimes. This case won’t help him.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.