CHARLOTTE -- Patrick Cannon, the former mayor of North Carolina's largest city, has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison on corruption charges. US Attorney Anne Tompkins prosecuted the case in a Charlotte federal courtroom, just blocks from the former mayor's office. Tompkins told reporters there were damaging ripples felt from Cannon's decisions.

Tompkins said, "We talked in the sentencing about collateral damage that gets done. There's direct damage to the city and the city's reputation. The reputation of honest elected officials and honest city bureaucrats and workers. And every citizen of the city suffers the reputational harm that we have from being a city now that has public corruption."

The 47-year-old Cannon was sentenced to 44 months. Tompkins was emphatic when saying she did not regret making a plea deal with Cannon.