Former Gwinnett Co. commissioner Shirley Lasseter to be sentenced

A Gwinnett County businessman appeared before a federal judge Wednesday moing on charges he tried to bribe a former Gwinnett County commissioner who will be sentenced later in the day.

Federal prosecutors allege businessman Mark Gary paid $30,000 to the son of then-commissioner Shirley Lasseter for her vote. A federal magistrate set a $10,000 bond for Gary.

Lasseter, who admitted to taking bribes while she served as a Gwinnett County Commissioner, will lea her fate on Wednesday afteoon when she and her son John Fanning are sentenced in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.

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In May, Lasseter admitted to selling her vote to an FBI agent posing as a developer. The agent paid Lasseter $36,500 in exchange for her help in a rezoning case. Investigators even got video of Lasseter and her son counting the stacks of bills.

"When she took the money, Commissioner Lasseter told the undercover agent ‘you've got my vote,'" said U.S. Attoey Sally Yates

Prosecutors also say Lasseter tried to shop her vote for the highly controversial privatization of the Gwinnett County airport.

"I think that she was certainly having discussions about she might be able to use her vote and get some money for it," said Yates.

Gwinnett govement watchdogs say Lasseter not only broke the law, but she also violated the public's trust.

"A lot of the issues that she would [be] advocating for, there was not a sound basis for the decisions she was making," said a conceed citizen.

Lasseter faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.