Former Longtime L.A. City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas Sentenced To 3-Plus Years In Prison

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://deadline.com/2023/08/mark-ridley-thomas-sentence-3-plus-years-l-a-
city-councilman-1235529694/

Prominent Los Angeles County politician Mark Ridley-Thomas was sentenced
today to three years and six months in prison for voting in support of
county contracts that would favor USC while accepting benefits for his son
from the university.

“This was a shakedown,” prosecutors wrote in sentencing papers. See the
Justice Department’s recap of the case below.

“Not the kind in movies with bags of cash or threats of force. But the
kind that is polite and pervasive. The kind that happens too often by
sophisticated, powerful people. The kind to which society, sadly, has
become so accustomed that it often goes unreported and rarely yields
consequences for the offender but strikes a devastating blow to the
integrity of our democratic system.”

Defense attorneys asked for a term of home confinement, community service
and a fine, but no prison time. However, if incarceration is required,
they requested no more than two years and three months, court papers show.

Ridley-Thomas, 68, was convicted March 30, while he was a suspended member
of the L.A. City Council, on single counts of conspiracy, bribery, honest
services mail fraud and four counts of honest services wire fraud,
stemming from his time serving on the county Board of Supervisors.

Democrat Ridley-Thomas is a fixture of local politics, having held office
for the past 30 years as, variously, an L.A. City Councilman, a member of
the California State Assembly and Senate and an L.A. County Supervisor.
Ridley-Thomas was suspended from the City Council following the October
2021 federal indictment. After the guilty verdicts, Heather Hutt was
appointed as the new councilwoman from District 10.

He is the third L.A. city councilman to face federal charges over the past
few years. Former member José Huizar was arrested on racketeering charges
in 2020 and pleaded not guilty. Former Councilmember Mitchell Englander
was sentenced in 2021 to 14 months in federal prison for his conduct
surrounding his obstruction of a public-corruption investigation.

Jurors, who reached their verdicts on their fifth day of deliberations in
Los Angeles federal court, acquitted Ridley-Thomas of a dozen fraud
counts.

In defense papers, Ridley-Thomas’ attorneys argued for a probationary
sentence along the lines of the penalty handed to his co-defendant,
Marilyn Flynn.

Flynn, an 84-year-old former dean of the social work school at USC who
pleaded guilty to bribing the veteran politician, was sentenced last month
to 18 months home confinement and ordered to pay a $150,000 fine.

“A just sentence must consider whether imposing a significantly different
sentence from that imposed on Dean Flynn lends to the appearance of
vindictiveness for proceeding to trial,” according to Ridley-Thomas’
attorneys.

He is appealing the conviction.

“Mr. Ridley-Thomas was elected to serve the people of Los Angeles, but
instead, his deliberate actions served his own interests and those of his
family member,” said Donald Alway, the Assistant Director in Charge of the
FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI will continue to target the
corruption that erodes trust in government so the people of Los Angeles
can have faith in their elected officials.”

Here is the DOJ’s synopsis of the Ridley-Thomas case:

The jury found that Ridley-Thomas engaged in a criminal conspiracy with
Marilyn Louise Flynn, 84, of Los Feliz, formerly the dean of the
University of Southern California’s School of Social Work and a tenured
professor.

In December 2017, citing health issues, Ridley-Thomas’ son abruptly
resigned from the California State Assembly. At the time of his
resignation, Ridley-Thomas’ son was the subject of a sexual harassment
investigation in the Assembly, a fact not known by USC or the public.
Behind the scenes, Ridley-Thomas orchestrated a media and legal campaign,
using a public relations team to convince the public his son was ill and a
legal team to indefinitely stall the Assembly’s investigation.

Ridley-Thomas sought “landing spots” for his son, prosecutors said, to
preserve the Ridley-Thomas family legacy and Ridley-Thomas’ own political
brand in advance of a planned run for Los Angeles mayor in 2022. These
“spots” included prestigious titles, advanced degrees, and paying jobs to
help his son deal with mounting personal debt.

Ridley-Thomas solicited Flynn’s help securing these spots for his son. He
knew that Flynn needed his help obtaining county contracts, and he
“monetized” his public service by using the power of his elected office as
a “bargaining chip” to enrich his family and preserve his political image,
prosecutors argued.

During the conspiracy’s course, Flynn ultimately met Ridley-Thomas’
demands by providing his son graduate school admission to pursue a dual
master’s degree, a full-tuition scholarship, a paid professorship, and a
mechanism for Ridley-Thomas to funnel $100,000 of his campaign funds
through the university to a non-profit operated by the son – the Policy,
Research & Practice Initiative (PRPI).

By funneling the payment through USC, Ridley-Thomas attempted to disguise
the true source of a $100,000 payment to make it appear as though USC, not
Ridley-Thomas, was the generous benefactor supporting his son and PRPI.

As part of their scheme, Ridley-Thomas and Flynn defrauded USC and others
by concealing their secret arrangement and lying to the university about
the purpose of Ridley-Thomas’ $100,000 donation of campaign funds to USC,
as well as the reason for Flynn’s request that the university make a
$100,000 payment to PRPI. Had USC known about their scheme or the lies
both told, USC would not have accepted Ridley-Thomas’ $100,000 donation,
nor would it have approved the subsequent $100,000 payment to PRPI.

In exchange for Flynn’s help funneling the $100,000 in campaign funds
through USC to PRPI and his son, Ridley-Thomas supported a lucrative
amendment to an existing contract between the county and USC through which
the USC Telehealth Clinic provided virtual mental health services to
patients referred by the county in exchange for taxpayer dollars. On the
face of the contract, the amended terms offered USC more than $500,000 in
revenue, although according to evidence at trial, Flynn anticipated an
even greater return – potentially up to $8 million in new revenue – with
Ridley-Thomas’ assistance.

In addition, while soliciting benefits from Flynn, Ridley-Thomas supported
other contracts involving the Social Work School, including contracts to
provide services to the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS)
and the county’s Probation Department. During the conspiracy, Ridley-
Thomas voted on three county proposals, including the amended Telehealth
contract, that Flynn had sought to shore up her school’s financial
situation as it faced a multimillion-dollar budget deficit. Ridley-Thomas
also worked to influence key county decisionmakers associated with these
approvals and made sure Flynn knew of his efforts while he sought
lucrative benefits for his son from Flynn.

City News Service contributed to this report.


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We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.

[Leroy N. Soetoro]