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Post by Justin Thyme on Jun 1, 2012 9:11:26 GMT -5
Don't think the Chattanooga area is alone in corruption. At least we are catching ours for now. I'm wondering how many more on the county commission will be indicted, though.
Gwinnett commissioner, son plead guilty to taking bribe By Bill Rankin and David Wickert
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Shirley Lasseter abruptly resigned as Gwinnett County commissioner Thursday before pleading guilty to taking $36,500 in bribes in an ongoing corruption investigation that ensnared her son and a businessman described as Lasseter's "bag man."
Lasseter pleaded guilty to one count of bribery. Her son, John Fanning, a member of Gwinnett's Zoning Board of Appeals, and Hall County businessman Carl "Skip" Cain also pleaded guilty to the bribery scheme and to federal drug charges. They will be sentenced Aug. 6.
If the pleas were not enough to shake up the county government, federal prosecutors disclosed that more prosecutions involving land deals could be forthcoming. At Thursday's hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Gilfillan said all three defendants are now talking to authorities and could receive reduced sentences based on the value of their cooperation in other investigations.
Lasseter becomes the third Gwinnett commissioner in less than two years to resign from office amid accusations of wrongdoing. Chairman Charles Bannister and Commissioner Kevin Kenerly resigned in 2010 in the wake of a grand jury investigation of dubious land deals. Kenerly was was eventually indicted on bribery charges.
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Post by apriled on Jun 1, 2012 10:53:18 GMT -5
Justin,
You have brought up a County that is the Mecca of public corruption. Every discussion with people in the know about bad government, always ends up with a mention about Gwinnet, and an East Tennessee County that TBI has made careers on that I cannot seem to recall.
Media and citizens are all that stands between public corruption and good government.
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Post by Justin Thyme on Jun 1, 2012 12:12:44 GMT -5
April, I live in Gwinnett County. Corruption down here is bad and the money that developers have been able to make in the past is what is fueling it. I guess I could say, though, that at least I don't live in next door Dekalb County where the outgoing Sheriff had the incoming Sheriff assassinated to try to keep him from investigating the corruption in the Sheriff's office.
And then there is Cherokee County.
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Post by professorx on Jun 1, 2012 21:08:11 GMT -5
Don't think the Chattanooga area is alone in corruption. At least we are catching ours for now. I'm wondering how many more on the county commission will be indicted, though.
[/blockquote][/quote] It has been downhill since they took down the "Success Lives Here" water tanks. Seriously, Gwinnett County is huge. If you have that many people, politicians, government workers some are bound to have problems. Politicians come from the same demographics as society at large, and have the same proportion of criminals.
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