Mark Wahlberg Drops Pardon Request for Teenage Assault Conviction

The Massachusetts Parole Board considers the matter closed

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Mark Wahlberg‘s bid to get a pardon for his assault conviction has officially ended.

The Massachusetts Parole Board said that they recently sent a letter to Wahlberg asking if he wished to proceed with his pardon request and did not hear back. They therefore consider the matter closed, per Fox News.

During a Q&A Tuesday for the Toronto Film Festival premiere of his film “Deepwater Horizon,” Wahlberg told TheWrap that his appeal to Massachusetts state officials to expunge the charges was ill-advised — but the process allowed him to meet with and apologize to one of his victims, Hoa Trinh.

“It was one of those things where it was just kind of presented to me, and if I could’ve done it over again I would never have focused on that or applied,” Wahlberg said of the pardon application, which was met with protests from an Asian American activist group when it was announced in 2014.

“I didn’t need that, I spent 28 years righting the wrong. I didn’t need a piece of paper to acknowledge it. I was kind of pushed into doing it, I certainly didn’t need to or want to relive that stuff over again,” Wahlberg said of the 1988 incident, for which he served 45 days in prison.

Wahlberg, 16 at the time of the assault, was accused of beating Trinh so badly that the man lost sight in one of his eyes. The star said he was grateful to learn that those injuries were sustained a decade before. That same day, Wahlberg assaulted another man named Thanh Lam, knocking him unconscious with a piece of wood.

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