Dennis Carry released to ‘residential confinement’ before parole hearing
Former Washoe County Sheriff’s Sergeant Dennis Carry was released from prison on June 28. He was incarcerated April 2 after pleading guilty to three felonies, including bigamy. He was sentenced to a year in prison for each of the three felonies, but he was granted release after a parole hearing in mid-June.
“He was housed at Northern Nevada Correctional Center then was placed on Residential Confinement on June 28, 2024,” Nevada Department of Corrections spokesperson Teri Vance said. “He is still under NDOC custody with Parole and Probation doing the supervision. He was recently granted parole and will be transitioning from Residential Confinement to Parole effective September 23, 2024. Parole date is estimated based on current calculation.”
Carry was separated from other inmates while confined at NNCC. The prison’s residential confinement program allows for early release for nonviolent offenders if they are within two years of parole.
Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam would not comment on his release. “At this time, we have no comment,” said WCSO spokesperson Mary-Sarah Kinner.
Carry is accused of having committed seven felonies while working as a sex crimes detective under Balaam. He is alleged to have used his secret detective identity – Dennis James – to cover up a divorce scheme. That included breaking into a Washoe County Courthouse and forging documents.
Reno Police and the District Attorney’s Office spent years investigating and prosecuting Carry. RPD Lt. Trenton Johnson wrote a voluminous criminal complaint detailing the nature of Carry’s crimes. He began investigating Carry in January 2019. Carry ultimately pleaded down from seven felony charges to three.
Carry, at his June parole hearing, told the parole board that he wanted to put the matter behind him, that he made stupid mistakes and that he wanted to continue to run his two businesses in Oregon, his permanent residence. He also admitted that he was back together with his first wife, with whom he had not divorced before marrying his second wife, a federal magistrate. Both wives divorced him after he was being criminally investigated.
The District Attorney’s Office noted that Carry was successfully prosecuted and sentenced to prison.
“The ultimate decision whether to release a convicted person on parole lies with Nevada’s Parole Board,” DA spokesperson Kendall Holcomb said. “However, cases such as this highlight a prison system that routinely releases criminal defendants early after having served a fraction of their time. The lack of truth in sentencing in Nevada needs to be addressed by our legislature.”
The “lack of truth” in sentencing is what DA Chris Hicks said is an injustice to crime victims.
“In practical terms, consider a defendant who is sentenced to five years in prison with parole eligibility after a minimum of two years has been served,” Hicks wrote in the Reno Gazette Journal. “Anyone who heard this would rightfully think that the defendant was going to prison for five years, but if he is a model inmate who pursues self-improvement programs, he may get released on parole after two years. In Nevada, ‘truth in sentencing’ means that for a list of crimes, this defendant could be released in less than a year, serving only 10 months.”
Carry is expected to get another parole hearing in September or October.
