Bush's un-pardon raises plenty of questions

Some of his Brooklyn neighbors say Mr. Toussie has been protective of his son. He helped him buy a home on Dover Street several years ago, according to a resident who did not want to be named for fear of antagonizing neighbors. He extended the chain-link fence from his homes on Exeter, one street to the east, to his son’s home.

But the fence cut through a 104-by-20-foot grass strip abutting the home of Igor Zolotov, who lives between the houses of Mr. Toussie and his son. Mr. Zolotov and Mr. Toussie both claimed that the land was theirs, but in 2003 a state appellate court sided with Mr. Zolotov, who removed the fence and replaced it with a smaller one.

The decision did not erase the bad will Mr. Toussie had created. Neighbors, some of whom had moved to Manhattan Beach to be by the sea, still do not have easy access to the shore because of another section of Mr. Toussie’s fence that still stands. And they see Isaac Toussie’s legal troubles through the prism of what they call his father’s heavy-handedness.

“It’s not surprising that the son is following in the footsteps of the father,” said Irena Zolotova, 31, Mr. Zolotov’s daughter. “It caused my father a lot of indignation. It’s chutzpah. How do you try to take away somebody’s property?”

Some neighbors, including Sabina Gurshumova, 29, a homemaker who lives across the street from the elder Mr. Toussie, say the Toussies are “good people.”

“Sometimes they have us over for dinner for the holidays,” Ms. Gurshumova said.

Neither Mr. Toussie nor his son answered the doors of their homes on Thursday. But one Toussie family member said the picture of the father and the son was unfair.

“They are philanthropists; they build hospitals and save people,” said a woman reached by telephone who identified herself as a cousin, Marie Torgueman. She cited in particular Robert Toussie’s donations to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital but said both father and son were involved in charitable activities.

While a president has unfettered authority to grant a pardon for any reason he wishes, the suggestion of a linkage to political donations has proved controversial in the past. The most notorious case in recent years was President Bill Clinton’s 2001 pardon of the fugitive financier Marc Rich, whose ex-wife had donated $450,000 to the Clinton presidential library.

Experts on pardons said the White House faced a difficult decision on whether to find out if someone seeking a pardon had made political contributions.

On the one hand, the president’s advisers would probably want to have that information to avoid the type of appearance problem that arose in the Toussie case. But if the White House did seek information on donations, it could be accused of tilting pardons toward those who had given money.

“I would want to make sure that anything that’s potentially embarrassing to the president, he ought to know about it in making the decision,” said Margaret Love, a pardon lawyer at the Justice Department in the Clinton administration.

Alain Delaquérière, Mick Meenan and Liz Robbins contributed reporting.

This article, A Father, a Son, and a Short-Lived Presidential Pardon, first appeared in The New York Times

More from msnbc.com Racist webcam? TheGrio's test says no View an interactive, HD panorama of N.Y.'s 30 Rock Scoop: No Tiger cub on way for Rachel Uchitel Census workers wanted, local roots preferred Cosmic Log: Decades of future science Answer Desk: Gold may be riskier than it seems Send your holiday pictures to troops

MORE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

The New York Times Section Front

NYT: Hopes dim, GOP vows to fight health bill NYT: Similarities to Iraq surge mask Afghan risks NYT: Wider Pakistan drone use OK'd NYT: S.C. rift highlights debate in GOP NYT: Medical debt spurs more bankruptcies Health bill revives abortion groups Drug firms raise prices ahead of reform For thrillers, Glenn Beck is new Oprah Analysis: Victories rekindle GOP’s hope The New York Times Section Front