CLEVELAND (AP) -- A former county manager in Cleveland has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for bribing an elected official with cash, gifts and phony loans that weren't repaid.

The Plain Dealer reports 45-year-old Daniel Weaver of Westlake told U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi on Thursday that he was in over his head working in "a place where right seemed wrong and wrong was right."

The former Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) County information services center director had earlier pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit bribery count.

Weaver was accused of bribing then-county Auditor Frank Russo from 2005 to 2008 with cash and gifts in return for favors involving projects that would benefit him. He was ordered to pay $29,000 restitution.

Russo pleaded guilty to bribery and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.