Former Gwinnett County Commissioner Shirley Lasseter will report to a Florida prison next month to begin serving a 33-month sentence for bribery.
Meanwhile, the sentencing date for a developer who admitted bribing Lasseter may be pushed back as federal prosecutors seek his assistance in an ongoing corruption investigation, court documents filed this week show.
Last May Lasseter admitted she accepted $36,500 from an undercover FBI agent posing as a businessman seeking her vote for a Boggs Road real estate development. She pleaded guilty to a bribery charge, and in September U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pannell Jr. sentenced her to 33 months. Since then, she’s been living with a friend and waiting to report to federal prison.
In a letter dated Nov. 15 and filed in court Monday, she was ordered to report to the federal correctional institution in Marianna, Fla., by Dec. 12.
Lasseter did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
Lasseter’s son, John Fanning; and Hall County businessman Carl “Skip” Cain also pleaded guilty to participating in the bribery scheme and to drug charges. Pannell sentenced them to 57 months each.
Court documents do not indicate when the men will report to federal prison. Fanning has been held at the Gwinnett County jail since his Oct. 5 arrest on charges including assault, stemming from a confrontation with his estranged wife.
All three defendants have cooperated in the federal corruption investigation, secretly recording conversations with unnamed people as part of the FBI investigation.
That cooperation led to a bribery charge against Duluth developer Mark Gary, who admitted last month he paid Lasseter and Fanning $30,000 in casino chips in exchange for Lasseter’s 2009 vote for a $4 million waste-transfer station Gary planned to develop off Winder Highway.
A sentencing hearing for Gary is scheduled Jan. 3. However, on Wednesday prosecutors asked Pannell to delay Gary’s sentencing by at least 60 days “to facilitate matters related to the defendant’s cooperation.”
Prosecutors have said their investigation is continuing but have not said whether it will lead to additional charges.
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