SMYRNA, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Smyrna man is thankful to be able to coach his son once again following a pardon from Gov. Bill Lee for a drug charge dating back more than two decades.

“I was completely guilty, I was a stupid teenager. I mean, I was making some very bad choices,” said Justin Beshearse, who was recently pardoned.

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Twelve days after turning 18, Beshearse said he and a buddy were charged with selling marijuana and cocaine. Ever since then, he has had a felony on his record. Things really hit home about eight years ago, which is when Beshearse signed up to help coach his son Noah’s T-ball league.

“The day of the coaches’ meeting, I’m walking up and they met me at the fence and they said, ‘Mr. Beshearse, you can’t step foot on this field. You’re not allowed to coach, you’ve got a background, you’ve got a felony and we can’t allow felons on the field,’” he recalled.

In June of 2022, Beshearse applied for a governor pardon. Last October, his state representative, Mike Sparks (R-Smyrna), arranged a meeting with the governor. Finally, in December, Beshearse got the call he had been waiting on from Lee himself.

“It was the best feeling. It was 20 years of this stigma, this weight that’s on you that you can never get off,” he told News 2.

Beshearse and his wife recently added to their family, adopting four foster children. The couple also started a league dedicated to offering sports to children who are home-schooled.

“We just finished our first season and I’m already

making plans for how we’re going to expand the program and I’m going to do middle school and high school next year, and so how we’re going to go recruiting the homeschool community. It’s like something I always wanted to do, and I prayed for, and now that it’s here, it doesn’t seem like it’s real,” he added.

Beahearse found out his record had been officially expunged on May 8.