Carson Figure Pleads No Contest

Carson’s former mayor, currently serving time in a federal prison for his role in a corruption scheme, pleaded no contest Thursday to sending out two illegally anonymous mass mailings.

Superior Court Judge Kelvin Filer sentenced Daryl Sweeney to a six-month term for the two misdemeanor counts, to be served concurrently with a 71-month federal sentence stemming from a trash-hauling and bribery scheme, according to the district attorney’s office.

Sweeney, who served on the Carson City Council from 1997 until his resignation in July 2003, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to extort $600,000 from waste haulers competing for a $60-million city contract. He was sentenced for those charges on Dec. 20. Although the six-month sentence will add no time to Sweeney’s prison term, the pleas provide an assurance that illegal activities will not be tolerated, Deputy Dist. Atty. Max Huntsman said.

Under current law, people are required to report expenditures and identify themselves and their addresses on mass political mailings.

One of Sweeney’s mailers, sent out in March 2002, urged voters to reject a change in trash-hauling contracting procedures that would have interfered with his extortion scheme, prosecutors said.

The other mailer, sent to Carson voters in February 2004, urged recipients not to vote for then-Councilman Jim Dear in his bid to become mayor, the district attorney’s office said.