Former Gwinnett County Commissioner Shirley Lasseter has been sentenced on federal bribery charges.

A judge sentenced Lasseter to 33 months in what is expected to be a minimum security facility and another three years of supervised release.

The charges filed in May could have brought a maximum of ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Lasseter admitted to accepting more than $36,000 from an undercover agent to influence her vote to approve zoning for a pawn shop.

Prosecutors say Lasseter's son, John Fanning, planned to open that pawn shop with businessman Skip Cain and a third man as a front to deal drugs.

Lasseter, Fanning, and Cain had no idea that the other man they were dealing with was an undercover FBI agent.

The judge postponed sentencing for Fanning and Cain until September 18. They each face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for drug trafficking, after they transported what they thought to be drugs to New York. Those fake drugs were just another part of the undercover operation.

In May, U.S. Attorney Sally Yates said the case against Lasseter was part of an ongoing corruption investigation in Gwinnett County.

"The citizens of this district have the right to expect that officials are not going to use their positions to line their pockets with payoffs from developers and certainly not from drug dealers," said Yates.

U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell has received numerous letters on the former commissioner's behalf: some calling for leniency due to Lasseter's financial problems, others asking for the maximum ten-year prison term.

Outside the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center, Tuesday, WSB's Sandra Parrish asked those coming and going what they thought.

"She probably deserves the ten years, but I'd probably take a look at five or six," said Walt Reynolds of Lawrenceville.

Reynolds' wife, Joan, agrees. "I don't think she should get the maximum, but I do think she should serve some time," she said. "People have to realize they do have to obey the law."

Angelia Paul of Buford wanted Lasseter to receive the maximum. "She should do the time, because there's just so much corruption," she said. "So many politicians are getting off with sort of a smack on the hand, and something has to be done to make it stop."