Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon arrested, faces corruption charges

CBS News/AP ^ | March 26, 2014 | CBS News/AP

[mdittmar]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The mayor of North Carolina's largest city has been arrested on public corruption charges.

U.S. Attorney Anne Tompkins said Wednesday that Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon is facing theft and bribery charges.

Tompkins says Cannon solicited and accepted bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as real estate developers who wanted to do business in Charlotte. According to the criminal complaint, Cannon is accused of accepting bribes from the agents on five separate occasions. On the most recent occasion, on February 21,2014, Cannon allegedly accepted $20,000 in cash in the mayor's office.

He's also accused of accepting from the undercover agents over $48,000 in cash, airline tickets, a hotel room, and use of a luxury apartment between January 2013 and February 2014 in exchange for the use of his official position.

If convicted on all the charges, he faces 20 years in prison and more than $1 million in fines.

[chiefqc]

McCrory is a Republican first-term governor. Cannon, a Democrat, was elected in 2013.

Well,well well, two out of three. No surprise there.

[Impy]

The new interim Mayor is Cannon’s fellow rat, City Councilman Michael Barnes, the Mayor Pro Tem.

I believe the council (9 to 2 rat) gets to decide who will serve the rest of the term, no special election. Unfortunate, as the term just recently started. The city has a Council/Manager form of government and the Mayor serves a 2 year term (next election in Nov. 2015), but he does have veto power (2/3 to override).

[fieldmarshaldj]

That’s outrageous. Given that this guy just took office, the public should demand a special election at the earliest.

[boatbums]

He was mayor pro-tem when Anthony Fox left to be Obama’s Transportation secretary. The investigation began FOUR years ago WHILE Fox was still the mayor and Cannon was just elected mayor last year. Here’s hoping they can find out Fox knew about it all and didn’t care (he may have even been doing it himself). Had the public known about this, I would hope Cannon would have had to withdraw since nobody would vote for him except the usual suspects. The Dems pulled a fast one on Charlotte!

[boatbums]

He’s a democrat, his biggest opponent in the election was another democrat named Smuggie. I thought we lucked out and got the lesser of two evils.

His opponent was a RINO named Edwin Peacock (I kid you not). Too bad Obama's pal Anthony Fox (the former mayor, now Transportation Secretary) kept the FOUR year investigation secret from the voting public as Cannon won the mayoral election just last November. I wouldn't be surprised if Fox did the same things Cannon is accused of.