Lombard man pardoned by Trump
Craig Cesal of Lombard was granted clemency by now former President Donald Trump on Trump’s last day in office, Jan. 19. He had been serving a life sentence for conspiracy to distribute marijuana since 2003.
By Mike Sandrolini
For the Independent
Craig Cesal, who was sentenced to life in federal prison after being convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana in October 2003, anxiously awaited a life-changing phone call from the White House on the final full day of Donald Trump’s presidency.
The day before, on Jan. 18, Cesal got word that the White House wanted the best phone number at which to reach him because Trump was to announce clemencies at noon Jan. 19 … and Cesal was on the list.
However, noon came and went. Cesal, 61, told the Independent he waited by the phone the entire day and into the night. No phone call. He finally decided to go to bed at 10 p.m.
“I was kind of depressed thinking this might be a letdown,” he said, concluding that Trump had decided not to grant him clemency. “ ‘I’m back to where I’ve been for the last 19 years.’ ”
But after around 11 p.m., Cesal said the phone rang.
“A woman told me, ‘This is Ivanka Trump from the White House calling.’ ”
He said the president’s daughter then “said the words I’ll never forget: ‘The president has commuted your sentence.’ ”
When asked what he felt immediately after hearing his sentence had been commuted, Cesal said, “Relief that it was actually true.”
Cesal’s case had been taken up by several advocacy groups, including the Denver-based Last Prisoner Project—a nonprofit organization dedicated to cannabis criminal justice reform. In addition to these groups, Cesal had another strong advocate in his corner: Alice Johnson, a Black woman in her 60s to whom Trump granted clemency in 2018. Johnson had been jailed in 1996 on charges of attempted possession of drugs and money laundering after being involved in a cocaine trafficking ring in Memphis.
Johnson—who, like Cesal, would have served life in prison had she not been granted clemency—personally carried his application for clemency directly into the West Wing of the White House, Cesal noted.
“It’s as if my feet still haven’t hit the ground,” Cesal said. “This has been a long time.”
Indeed, it has.
Being charged … and sentenced
How Cesal actually became involved in what eventually led to him being arrested and convicted is a story in and of itself.
Cesal had a truck repair business in Lombard. One of his customers owned a trucking company in Lakeland, Fla. he had known for more than 10 years.
“The drivers (from that company) were using the semis to smuggle marijuana,” Cesal said. “They told me they did it; I didn’t know any of the details of it, but I generally knew that, yes, they were in that business (of smuggling marijuana).”
Cesal said he knowingly repaired the trucks after they had been damaged in smuggling operations. He was paid for doing the repairs like he would have been paid by other trucking companies—i.e., it was a normal business transaction.
“To be honest, I didn’t care what they did with their trucks,” Cesal said.
Eventually, the owner of the trucking company and his son were arrested for smuggling marijuana, and Cesal said they squealed on him.
The father was granted immunity for cooperating with federal prosecutors. Cesal said the son was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison, but Cesal added that “the bureau of prisons records don’t show him actually being in custody.”
Cesal, who was arrested in March 2002, said there were nine individuals sentenced in his indictment, but “everybody else in my case went home almost 15 years ago.”
“Many of them had 70- and 80-month sentences,” he said. “I was the only one who got a life sentence.”
Cesal was sentenced in October 2003. Why does he think he received a life sentence while the others in the case did not?
“The number one reason is because they (federal prosecutors) were determined I knew more about the operation than I did, and I refused to cooperate in the prosecution of others,” he said. “They believed I could help them (federal prosecutors) in the prosecution of others. They believed I did have that information on others. I actually didn’t know and I still don’t know. So, it (the sentence) was really an act of vengeance more than anything because I refused to cooperate with the prosecutors.”
Cesal appealed his sentence and believed it would be overturned. But after a two-year long appeals process, an appellate court ruled to uphold his life sentence.
Home confinement
Cesal spent 17 years in federal prison—the most recent five years at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Federal Correctional Complex. His son, Curtis, died in 2016 while Cesal was in prison.
“It was devastating to me,” Cesal said of his son’s death.
Last June, however, Cesal was released to home confinement due to a COVID-19 breakout at the prison.
“I’m exceptionally vulnerable (to COVID) as a diabetic,” he said. “But the provision of it (home confinement) was when the COVID abated, I would have to go back to federal prison.”
He spent home confinement at his 83-year-old mother’s house in Lombard, where he currently resides after being granted clemency.
During home confinement, Cesal had to get permission to leave home and was required to wear a GPS ankle monitor. He was allowed two passes per week, both of which had to be scheduled a week in advance.
Cesal used one of those passes last August to see a doctor on the south side of Chicago in order to undergo an outpatient procedure to correct trigger thumb—a condition that causes a thumb to get stuck in a bent position.
While walking down S. Western Avenue en route to the doctor’s office, Cesal found himself ironically standing in front of a cannabis store. Recreational marijuana had been legalized in Illinois in 2019, which led to cannabis dispensaries being allowed to open throughout the state last year.
“I ended up standing right in front of a big cannabis store watching people walk in and out carrying bags (of cannabis),” he said. “There I am watching all this with the GPS on my ankle knowing that I’m about ready to go back to prison for marijuana and watching these people. I was speechless.”
Looking ahead
Since he’s been granted clemency, Cesal, of course, won’t be going back to Terre Haute.
Cesal now works for the Last Prisoner Project, helping to oversee the reentry into society of those who’ve served marijuana-related prison sentences. He said he’s also determined to advocate for criminal justice reform, adding that “there needs to be a change in our federal criminal justice system” with regard to drug offenses.
“There are still people today that are still serving life sentences for marijuana,” he said. “So many states have decriminalized marijuana, so really, the public outlook on marijuana has changed.
“I was a first-time offender on a marijuana charge,” he added. “The federal guidelines for my charges were a life sentence. Had I instead been convicted of rape, and seriously hurt a person in the course of that rape, my sentencing guidelines would be 33 months in prison. We have a justice system that’s upside down. I watched lots of violent offenders come and go (in prison).”
