Federal prosecutors are recommending a six-year prison sentence for the former city councilman. Mark Ridley-Thomaswho was convicted on charges of bribery, fraud and conspiracy for diverting county contracts to the USC School of Social Work in exchange for secretly funneling a $100,000 contribution to an organization led by his son, according to court documents filed Monday.
“This was extortion,” prosecutors wrote in a 32-page sentencing memorandum.
“Not the kind of movies with bags of cash or threats of force. But the type that is polite and penetrating. The kind that happens all too often to sophisticated and powerful people. The kind that society has unfortunately become so used to that it often goes unreported and rarely results in consequences for the offender, but it deals a devastating blow to the integrity of our democratic system.”
Defense attorneys are asking for a trial sentence with home confinement and no prison time.
Ridley-Thomas, 68, was convicted March 30 of single counts of conspiracy, bribery, honest services mail fraud and four counts of honest services wire fraud, stemming from his time on the county Board of Supervisors.
Sentencing is scheduled for August 21 in downtown Los Angeles.
Prosecutors request that US District Judge Dale S. Fischer impose a sentence of six years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $30,000 fine.
In defense documents also filed Monday, lawyers for Ridley-Thomas are advocating a probation sentence similar to the sentence handed down to his co-defendant, Marilyn Flynn.
Flynn, an 84-year-old former dean of the USC school of social work who sHe was found guilty of bribing the politicianwas sentenced last month to three years probation, including 18 months of home confinement, and ordered to pay a $150,000 fine.
Ridley-Thomas’ lawyers are urging a term of probation, with “substantial” home confinement, community service, a financial penalty, “and any other punitive and restorative terms the Court deems just and reasonable,” the defense said, the lawyers wrote.
“A just sentence must consider whether imposing a sentence significantly different from that imposed on Dean Flynn gives the appearance of retaliation for proceeding to trial,” the document says.
According to the prosecution memo, Ridley-Thomas shook Flynn and, in doing so, made her demands known: “Help me and my son in exchange for business in Los Angeles County.”
Prosecutors say Flynn got the message loud and clear.
“Knowing that lucrative county contracts and an amendment to the existing telehealth contract hung in the balance, Flynn worked tirelessly, for over a year, to offer seemingly every perk and benefit at his disposal to accommodate the defendant and his son.” , according to the note
Ridley-Thomas has vehemently denied any wrongdoing. He did not testify in his own defense during his three-week trial, but his lawyers repeatedly argued that nothing he did amounted to a crime.
Los Angeles city councilman Mark Ridley Thomas, accused of corruption, was suspended from his position on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors based their case on a long series of emails and letters to bolster allegations that Ridley-Thomas, one of Los Angeles’ most formidable politicians, “used his public privileges to monetize his elected office and demand benefits for his son,” prosecutors wrote.
Knowing Flynn needed county contracts and a Telehealth contract amendment, Ridley-Thomas made county businesses dependent on benefits for her son, Sebastian, including:
- admission to USC to obtain a master’s degree;
- a full tuition scholarship to attend USC for free;
- a paid professorship to teach at USC while concurrently enrolling as a student;
- the secret funneling of $100,000 from the father’s campaign committee account through USC to a nonprofit organization his son headed called Policy, Research and Practice, according to trial testimony.
“Witness testimony and hundreds of emails admitted at trial, as well as Flynn’s admissions in his guilty plea, make it clear that the defendant led and orchestrated this corrupt scheme,” the memo reads.
In their argument for probation and home confinement, defense attorneys wrote that there is no need to jail Ridley-Thomas.
“It has been in the public eye for decades,” the defendant’s lawyers wrote.
“His reputation was built on ethical community empowerment. The shame of his convictions is a punishment and provides a broad specific deterrent.
“With felony convictions, your service in public office is over. He has lost his seat on the city council and may lose his pension. Now that he’s approaching 70, he faces a desperately uncertain financial future. And you don’t need a long sentence to protect the public.”
Ridley-Thomas served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1991 to 2002, then was a member of the Assembly and state Senate before being elected to the county’s powerful Board of Supervisors in 2008, serving until 2020, when he returned to the City Council. .
He was suspended from the City Council following the October 2021 federal indictment that also named Flynn as a co-defendant. After the guilty verdicts, Heather Hutt Appointed as the New District 10 Councilwoman.
Jurors, reaching their verdicts on their fifth day of deliberations in Los Angeles federal court, acquitted Ridley-Thomas of a dozen counts of fraud.
Ridley-Thomas’ lawyers are appealing the conviction.
