By Rachel Lippmann
St. Louis – A former Democratic operative in St. Louis has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison on fraud and weapons charges.
Thirty-eight year old Milton "Skip" Ohlsen pleaded guilty to two felony counts in May. He also has to pay nearly $100,000 in restitution.
He has admitted to falsifying his income on two 2007 loan applications. The weapons charge - a felon in possession of a firearm - comes from a drug convictions Ohlsen has on his record from a decade ago.
The charges are not related to a political corruption scandal involving Ohlsen that forced two Democratic state lawmakers to resign.
Ohlsen was the operative who ran an independent group that issued attack mailings against Rep. Russ Carnahan during the 2004 Democratic primary in the 3rd Congressional District. The group was later found to be illegally coordinating with the campaign of Jeff Smith, who was forced to resign from the state Senate in August after pleading guilty to two felony obstruction of justice charges. Former state Representative Steve Brown, who worked on Smith's Congressional campaign, also resigned in August.
Ohlsen's name has also emerged as a suspect in a Clayton bombing that injured a lawyer.