Remember Mark Ridley-Thomas? Don’t feel bad if you don’t: it has been a minute.
In brief, LA council member Ridley-Thomas was indicted for taking bribes from a dean at USC, in return for sending government funds to the “School of Social Work”.
The verdict came down today.
Guilty!
More accessible coverage from Deadline: he was convicted of one count of bribery, one of conspiracy, one count of honest services mail fraud, and four counts of honest services wire fraud. The jury acquitted him on 12 other counts.
Prosecutors alleged that the longtime local politician, while serving as a county supervisor, “put his hand out” and accepted perks from USC to benefit his son, Sebastian. Federal prosecutors based their case on a long string of emails and letters to bolster allegations that Ridley-Thomas and the former dean of the USC School of Social Work, Marilyn Flynn, had a quid pro quo arrangement during 2017 and 2018 in which the then-dean arranged for Sebastian’s admission to USC, a full-tuition scholarship and a paid professorship in exchange for his father’s support for county proposals that would ostensibly shore up the school’s shoddy financial picture and save Flynn’s job.
Ms. Flynn, who was also indicted, pled out to one bribery count in September. (I missed that story. Sorry.)
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 30th, 2023 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Law, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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