BOSTON — A former state prosecutor who secured a civil rights injunction against a young Mark Wahlberg after he hurled rocks and racial epithets at black schoolchildren says he shouldn’t be pardoned for an attack on two Asian men two years later.
Judith Beals, a former Massachusetts assistant attorney general, said Tuesday she believes in “forgiveness and reconciliation” but Wahlberg’s request should be denied because he hasn’t acknowledged the racial element of his crimes in documents he filed with the state last November.
“That acknowledgement of the crime and that facing of history is absolutely critical in the issuing of a pardon,” she said.
Wahlberg, who became a rapper and then an A-list actor nominated for an Oscar, acknowledged in his pardon application that he was high on marijuana and drugs at the time. He said he’s since dedicated himself to becoming a better person as an adult.
Wahlberg, 43, wants to be officially cleared of a 1988 incident in which he hit a Vietnamese man in the head with a wooden stick while trying to steal alcohol from a convenience store. Wahlberg, then 16, punched another Vietnamese man in the face while trying to avoid police.
He ended up being convicted as an adult of assault and other charges and was sentenced to three months in jail. He was released after about 45 days.
Beals said what made Wahlberg’s 1988 crimes unique was that, just two years earlier, he had been issued a court order triggering criminal charges in the event he committed another hate crime.
According to court filings in that 1986 case, which Beals prosecuted, Wahlberg and two white friends chased three black siblings in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, throwing rocks and yelling racial epithets.
The following day, Wahlberg and a larger group of white friends harassed a group of mostly black fourth-graders until an ambulance driver intervened.
Beals argued that Wahlberg’s status and wealth should not place him in a better position than others to erase his misdeeds. She also suggested hate crimes should be held to a higher standard.
Associated Press
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