2 in Sting Operation Sentenced to Prison : Capitol probe: A lobbyist and a former aide were convicted of extorting money from undercover agents.

Two former Capitol aides were sentenced to prison Friday for extorting money from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen as part of a sting operation aimed at ensnaring corrupt public officials.

Tyrone Netters, convicted last October of nine felony counts, received a four-year, three-month prison term plus three years of probation for using his position as an aide to Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles) to extort $15,600 in 1986 and 1988 from the undercover agents. As part of his sentence, he must repay the money.

Darryl Freeman, found guilty of two counts of conspiring with and aiding Netters, was given a two-year prison term, a $5,000 fine and three years of probation.

Both men said they plan to appeal their convictions.

Netters contended that he was the victim of a government “con game,” in which he was shamelessly manipulated by undercover agents trying to win convictions in their Capitol investigation.

As part of the sting, agents posing as free-spending Southern businessmen were able to win support for special interest legislation designed to help them build a shrimp processing plant they purported to be setting up near Sacramento.

Netters contended that the sting was politically biased, targeting Democratic lawmakers and their staffs. He pointed out that Republican Gov. George Deukmejian was tipped off so that he would veto the bills to prevent them from becoming law--a step that prosecutors say is standard procedure in undercover investigations of statehouses throughout the country.

Freeman, while denying that he ever intended to violate the law, conceded in court that he may have crossed the line of proper conduct. Freeman’s crimes were committed in 1986, after he had become a professional lobbyist.

“We never intended to extort anyone or consciously betray (the) public trust,” Freeman said. “When money became an issue, things were said that shouldn’t have been said, things were done that shouldn’t have been done.”

U. S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton was untouched by Netters’ arguments--and by numerous letters urging him to consider Netters’ history of working to create jobs for minorities in California.

Among those writing letters was Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) who asked the judge to consider Netters’ “service to the state” in 13 years as a legislative aide.

Actor Brock Peters also wrote a letter to the court in support of Netters, citing the legislative aide’s successful efforts to find funding for a program to train minorities for jobs in the entertainment industry.

Karlton had little discretion under federal sentencing guidelines that apply to Netters’ 1988 offenses. The judge also rejected arguments that Netters’ sentence be delayed until his appeal is resolved and ordered him to surrender to federal prison authorities by March 17. Unless an appellate courts overturns his conviction, Netters will have to serve almost four years before becoming eligible for parole.

Freeman’s case involved crimes committed in 1986, before tough federal sentencing guidelines were enacted. He could be eligible for release after serving just one year in prison.

Even U. S. Atty. George O’Connell, who prosecuted the two men, agreed that Freeman--not a public official at the time he committed the felonies--was deserving of some sympathy.

But the prosecutor said that Freeman’s prison sentence will remind those in the Capitol “that even someone as peripherally involved as Mr. Freeman . . . is going to go to prison.”