Former Raleigh council candidate released from prison

One-time Raleigh City Council candidate Lent Carr II was released from federal prison over the weekend, authorities said.

Posted 2:40 p.m. Mar 12, 2012 — Updated 2:53 p.m. Mar 12, 2012

RALEIGH, N.C. — One-time Raleigh City Council candidate Lent Carr II was released from federal prison over the weekend, authorities said.

Carr was sentenced last August to seven months in prison for violating his parole on a 2000 fraud conviction. The Wake County Board of Elections then removed his name from the October ballot. He had been seeking the District C seat on the City Council.

Carr was convicted of bank and mail fraud related to insurance payments following a fire at his church that authorities determined had been set. A federal judge found that he violated his parole by pleading guilty in February 2011 to assaulting his stepson and by failing to meet with his parole officer or with a mental health counselor.

A WRAL News investigation found that Carr overstated his background, listing degrees on his campaign website and other sites that he didn't earn and touting experience as a law clerk without noting that he was a prison inmate at the time.

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