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Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, A politically connected lawyer’s drunk driving conviction is now gone, thanks to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R).

An investigation by the Associated Press published Friday revealed that high-powered attorney Alan Gocha Jr. was one of the recipients of the governor's rare pardons. Gocha, a member of Michigan's economic board, pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated in 2008.

Snyder has issued only 11 pardons during his more than four years in office.

Gocha's connections within the Michigan Republican Party run deep. He's a top adviser to 5-Hour Energy founder Manoj Bhargava, who has given millions to political groups supporting Snyder and other Michigan Republicans.

Gocha also received some high-powered help on his pardon application. According to the AP, one of Gocha’s references was Republican strategist Bob LaBrant, whom Snyder appointed to the Michigan Employment Relations Commission in 2012.

Between 2011 and 2013, Gocha contributed over $26,000 to the Michigan Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee. The Chamber endorsed Snyder in 2014.

Though Snyder admitted that he had met Gocha on several occasions -- even correcting an AP reporter’s pronunciation of his last name -- the governor defended the pardon, arguing he made the decision only after vetting by the parole board, which interviews applicants.

“He never contributed to my campaign, not had any financial connection at all,” Snyder said, according to the AP. “I didn’t meet with him about this issue.”

On Friday, critics asserted that Gocha's pardons were the direct result of his political connections.

"By pardoning a politically-connected attorney convicted of drunk driving, this governor has reached a new low," Lon Johnson, Michigan Democratic Party Chair said in a press release. "I don't know who is more shameless 00 the drunk driver asking for a pardon, or the governor who granted it."

“Clearly, this Governor is far more interested in protecting the wealthy than promoting real change,” Lonnie Scott, executive director of the left-leaning advocacy group Progress Michigan said in a press release.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, Gov. Rick Snyder used his pardon powers to erase the drunken driving conviction of a politically connected lawyer who was appointed to a state economic board in 2011.

Snyder followed the recommendation of the Michigan parole board and pardoned Alan Gocha Jr. in December - one of only 11 pardons out of roughly 750 applications since the governor took office.

Each year, thousands of people in Michigan are convicted of drunken driving and can suffer long-term consequences, such as lost work and higher insurance costs. Gocha, a $250,000-a-year lawyer for the maker of 5-hour Energy drinks, now is in the clear.

The Associated Press examined court documents, campaign finance reports and Gocha's pardon file - obtained under a public records request - to see how a Detroit-area lawyer with a misdemeanor conviction was granted the rare benefit.

Snyder defended the pardon, saying he acted only after a "very rigorous process" by the parole board and his staff. He knows the Oakland County man and even corrected a reporter's pronunciation of Gocha's name (Go-SHAY').

"I've met him on several occasions at different events," Snyder told the AP. "He never contributed to my campaign, not had any financial connection at all. I didn't meet with him about this issue."

Pardon applications in Michigan first are screened by the parole board, which decides whether to explore a case. Most are rejected.

A pardon "releases the punishment and blots out of existence the guilt, so that in the eye of the law the offender is as innocent as if he had never committed the offense," the Michigan Supreme Court has said.

Gocha, 53, declined to talk to the AP. "I'm sort of puzzled that it's of any interest," he said.

Gocha applied in April 2012, less than four years after pleading guilty to driving while impaired in Oakland County's Bloomfield Township. An agent conducted interviews and checked records before the file "was put on the backburner," said Russ Marlan, a deputy director at the Corrections Department.

But the board the next year encouraged Gocha to apply again, he said.

The governor was interested in "potential pardons where the conviction was inhibiting them from advancing economically or was preventing them from getting a job or was preventing them from financial freedom - from moving past some obstacle in their life," said Marlan, who oversees the parole board.

Gocha said the conviction was a "black cloud" that slowed deals with Wall Street bankers and limited international travel.

"I would really like to clean up a terrible mistake that I made," he told the board in 2014.

Bloomfield Township officers stopped Gocha for straying from his lane after midnight on Dec. 21, 2007. He lied about drinking alcohol and refused a roadside breath test because of "sheer panic," according to his testimony at the parole board.

He agreed to take a test at the police station about an hour later. His blood-alcohol level was 0.11 percent, above the 0.08 threshold for drunken driving.

Gocha claimed police had no reason to stop his Saturn Outlook, but that was a losing argument.

"He's got half of his car in the oncoming left turn lane," Judge Kimberly Small said after watching the dash-cam video. "This isn't even a close case."

Gocha pleaded guilty to driving while impaired and was sentenced to six days in jail. He continued to challenge the stop in higher courts. By spring 2011, he had lost at every turn. His next step: pursue the pardon.

The application asked for charitable or civic activities. Gocha listed his church, a law school speech and board membership at the state Chamber of Commerce. He did not disclose that he was a 2011 Snyder appointee to the Talent Investment Board, an unpaid group focusing on job creation.

"We're looking for good business people to be on boards in many capacities," the governor told the AP. "I appoint hundreds, thousands of people to boards. I think he was a good candidate."

One of Gocha's references was Bob LaBrant, a Republican strategist who is the Chamber of Commerce's former lawyer and a Snyder appointee on the Michigan Employment Relations Commission.

Gocha gave $26,500 to the chamber's political action committee from 2011 through 2013. He was general counsel for 5-hour Energy's parent company, Innovation Ventures, until 2010 when the legal department became a stand-alone firm.

The primary client is Innovation Ventures, based in Farmington Hills. Records show Gocha's firm also is the agent for ETC Capital, a private equity firm backed by 5-hour Energy's billionaire founder, Manoj Bhargava.

ETC Capital last August gave $2.5 million to the Republican Governors Association, joining conservative billionaires Sheldon Adelson and David Koch on the list of top five donors to the group that worked to elect Snyder and other Republican governors, according to an analysis by the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity. That same day, the RGA paid $3.2 million to a media company to place ads backing Snyder's re-election.

Eight weeks after ETC Capital gave $275,000 to the RGA in October 2013, the group gave $276,000 to the Michigan Republican Party.

"I had no idea that (Bhargava) was politically active. I had no idea that Gocha was politically active," said Marlan.

Gocha was "just another person" and received no special treatment, Marlan said.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, Gov. Rick Snyder has ordered flags at the Capitol and state buildings to be lowered to half-staff Monday, March 30, in honor of three Michigan Marines killed during a training exercise in Florida.

Staff Sergeants Andrew Seif, of Holland, Marcus Bawol, of Warren, Trevor Blaylock, of Lake Orion, were killed March 10 when their Back Hawk helicopter went down in water off the Florida Panhandle. The men were among 11 people killed during a nighttime training exercise on a UH-60 Black Hawk.

The governor's order is an apparent backtrack after news reports that flags would not be lowered because the Marines did not die in combat. A Snyder spokesman had cited an executive order outlining flag protocols in those reports.

Spokesman Dave Murray said Snyder has decided to review current flag protocols after reaching out to families of the fallen Marines.

Snyder "determined that while he understood the rationale behind the existing protocols, he wanted to be able to honor others from Michigan who lose their lives while serving their country," Murray said.

Under the current protocol, which was developed with input from the Michigan Department of Military Affairs, flags are displayed at half-staff "in honor of the service of members of our Armed Forces killed in the line of duty," according to the executive order.

"Those protocols can be looked at in the coming days, but first let's not lose sight of the service of these brave Marines and the sacrifices made by their families. They are heroes," Murray said.

Seif, named the 2013 Marine of the Year, was awarded the Silver Star Medal less than a week before the helicopter crash.

"We know the Holland community and all of West Michigan is mourning the loss of Staff Sgt. Seif, who earned a Silver Star for his bravery under enemy fire in Afghanistan," Snyder said Friday in a statement to MLive. "His heroism will long be remembered. He saved many lives and touched so many more. The story of his service and his life will serve as an inspiration for many in his community and our state."

Aside from the three men from Michigan, four other Marines and four Louisiana National Guard soldiers were also killed in the crash.