RICHMOND, Va. — Former Virginia first lady Maureen McDonnell told a judge before she was sentenced for corruption that her marriage, family and the state have been poisoned by her criminal conviction.
McDonnell was sentenced to one year and one day in prison on Friday. She told the judge takes full responsibility for taking bribes from a businessman.
Fighting back tears, she apologized to her family and alluded to the judge's statement at her husband's sentencing that she had "let the serpent" into the Executive Mansion.
She says the "venom from that snake has poisoned my marriage, has poisoned my family and has poisoned the commonwealth that I love."
The McDonnells took more than $165,000 in gifts and loans from the former CEO of Star Scientific Inc.