Politics & Government

Order Comes Down for Shirley Lasseter to Report to Prison

Letter filed in federal district court in Atlanta requires the former Gwinnett County commissioner to report to prison in Florida by Dec. 12 to serve 33-month sentence for bribery.

Former Gwinnett County Commissioner Shirley Lasseter has been ordered to report to federal prison in Marianna, Fla., by Dec. 12 to begin serving a 33-month sentence for bribery, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Friday (Nov. 23).

Lasseter pleaded guilty last May to accepting $36,500 in bribes during 2011 from an undercover FBI agent posing as a Florida businessman for her favorable vote on a potential real estate development in her commission district. In September, she was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Charles A. Pannell Jr. to serve 33 months in prison without parole.

The order to report to prison was contained in a letter dated Nov. 15 and filed in the federal district court in Atlanta Nov. 19, the article stated.

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Lasseter resigned from her District 1 post on the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners in May. She had represented Duluth, Suwanee and Sugar Hill on the commission.

John Fanning, Lasseter’s son, and Carl “Skip” Cain pleaded guilty to participating in the bribery scheme and to drug trafficking charges in May. They were sentenced by Pannell to serve sentences of 57 months each in September, but apparently have not been ordered to report to prison yet.

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Fanning has been incarcerated in the Gwinnett County Detention Center since his arrest Oct. 5 on charges including felony aggravated assault and false imprisonment resulting from an altercation with his estranged wife at their home in Dacula.

Lasseter, Fanning and Cain received reduced sentences on the federal charges for cooperating with an ongoing investigation into corruption in Gwinnett County.

Gwinnett developer Mark Gary, who was later implicated in the investigation, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to giving Fanning and Lasseter $30,000 in casino chips as payment for her 2009 vote to approve a $4-million waste-transfer station Gary proposed to develop. The project was never developed.

Gary was scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 3. According to the AJC article, federal prosecutors have asked to delay his sentencing at least 60 days to facilitate matters relating to his cooperation with the corruption investigation.

This appeared on Gwinnett Patch.


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