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Carl 'Skip' Cain Ordered to Report to Prison by Jan. 7

U.S. District Court judge grants extension until Jan. 7 because Cain's wife was hospitalized. Cain had been scheduled to report to federal prison Dec. 19.

After being granted a brief reprieve because his wife was in the hospital, Carl “Skip” Cain of Flowery Branch has been ordered to report to federal prison by Jan. 7 to begin serving a 57-month sentence without parole. Cain pleaded guilty earlier this year to participating in a bribery scheme involving former Gwinnett County commissioner Shirley Lasseter and to drug trafficking charges.

Cain, 65, has been assigned to a federal prison in Edgefield, SC. The Federal Correctional Institute at Edgefield is a medium security facility for male offenders. It is located near the Georgia-SC border about 25 miles north of Augusta. FCI-Edgefield has a current prison population of 1,668.

Lasseter began serving a 33-month sentence for bribery Dec. 12 at a minimum security prison camp for female offenders in Marianna, FL.

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Cain had been scheduled to turn himself at the prison to begin serving his sentence Dec. 19 but was granted an extension to Jan. 7 in an order signed by U.S. District Judge Charles A. Pannell Jr. Dec. 14. Cain’s court-appointed attorney P. Bruce Kirwin filed the extension request for Cain Dec. 13. Although Kirwan asked for an extension for 30 days or until Jan. 23, the judge only granted it until Jan. 7.

The extension was sought because Cain’s wife was hospitalized after having two surgeries for the removal of blood clots in both her legs.

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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 Pannell in U.S. District Court in Atlanta to serve 33 months in prison without parole.

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 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.

Cain acted as a “bagman” for Lasseter and Fanning, arranging the bribes and setting up meetings where the payments were made. Fanning and Cain each laundered $10,000 in purported drug money and also acted as drug couriers for what they believed was cocaine in a FBI sting operation.

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

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. He was denied bond. A check of jail records Thursday (Dec. 27) indicated he was still being held in the jail.

 

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