A Florida drug dealer received early release from Obama. Now, he’s in trouble again

A St. Petersburg man arrested this week on charges of stealing more than 20 identities previously had his federal prison sentence commuted by then-President Barack Obama in 2016.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers on Monday arrested 42-year-old Eric L. Lemon in Collier County on 14 counts of possession of stolen credit cards and two counts of unlawful possession of five or more persons’ personal identification. Lemon was released Tuesday after posting $74,000 bond.

According to the arrest report, FHP troopers stopped a white Maserati coming from Miami for dark tint on the windows. The arrest report claimed that a K9 alert led to what the trooper described as a “probable cause” search. That turned up a bag with cash in small bills, three red pills along with “an unknown brown substance.”

The trooper used that as reason to search the three wallets Lemon carried. The arrest report said one had 21 pieces of identification that didn’t belong to Lemon, nine gift cards, six debit/credit cards, three food stamp cards, a Social Security card, two pieces of Florida identification and a piece of paper with five different names with license numbers and Social Security numbers.

Another wallet had a re-encoded gift card and two debit cards that didn’t belong to Lemon, the report said.

A drug dealing past

Lemon’s criminal past centered on drugs.

Florida Department of Corrections online records show Lemon did just over nine months in 1995 for three counts of cocaine possession and three counts of cocaine possession with intent to distribute. He was back in a year later for 23 months after another conviction on the same charges, one count each.

Then in 2006, federal court documents show he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics. His guilty plea’s admission of facts says Lemon gave undercover police 10 ounces of crack in exchange for 24-inch DUB Spinner wheels and Nitto tires for his 1998 Mercedes-Benz ML 320.

Lemon was sentenced to 188 months in federal prison, putting him in until at least summer 2020. He was released about four years early on Dec. 1, 2016 after former President Obama commuted his sentence.

Obama “commuted sentences of 214 federal inmates, including six from Tampa Bay, the most commutations granted in a single day in more than a century,” according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Lemon’s supervised release was terminated on Oct. 6, 2020, according to Tampa federal court documents.

“Neither the United States Probation Office nor the Government opposes early termination. Probation confirms that since December 1, 2016, Defendant has been fully compliant with all conditions of supervision and has successfully completed substance abuse treatment. Accordingly,further supervision is not warranted,” the termination said.

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