Carson Official Pleads Innocent in Payoffs Case

Carson City Councilman Jake Egan pleaded innocent Monday to a revised indictment charging that he took secret payments to support a development backed by convicted political corruption figure W. Patrick Moriarty.

The original 11-count indictment was amended last week to add another charge of mail fraud but does not involve any more money above the amount included in the first set of charges issued last month, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Ferdinand Fernandez arraigned Egan on the new charge and said the trial will remain scheduled for June 24.

An auto body shop owner who has spent six years on the Carson City Council, Egan became the 11th person and the fifth elected official charged in the wide-ranging political scandal swirling around Moriarty.

Moriarty, 53, is a real-estate developer and the former president of Red Devil Fireworks in Anaheim. He became a government witness against the politicians he supported when he pleaded guilty to corruption charges 15 months ago and began a seven-year prison sentence Monday.

Former Long Beach City Councilman James Wilson was sentenced to three years in prison last week for his convictions involving hidden payments, free trips and loans from Moriarty.

Egan, 45, is charged with taking money from Moriarty through political action committees beginning in 1981 in return for supporting the Casa del Amo mobile home park Moriarty wanted to build on a contaminated former trash dump in Carson.