{"id":112879,"date":"2023-03-08T17:41:07","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T01:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=112879"},"modified":"2023-03-08T17:43:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T01:43:09","slug":"jurors-hear-opening-statements-in-ridley-thomas-corruption-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2023\/03\/08\/jurors-hear-opening-statements-in-ridley-thomas-corruption-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Jurors hear opening statements in Ridley-Thomas corruption trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
Mark Ridley-Thomas [Image via LA County]<\/figcaption><\/figure>Mark Ridley-Thomas<\/strong> steered county contracts to USC’s social work school while he was a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in exchange for benefits for his son, a federal prosecutor told a jury on Wednesday, March 8, but the defense countered that nothing the veteran politician did was illegal and there was no quid pro quo arrangement.<\/p>\n

Ridley-Thomas, 68, faces 19 federal counts, including conspiracy, bribery, and honest services mail and wire fraud. He has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

“This is a case about power, privilege and lies,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Rybarczyk<\/strong> said in his opening statement.\u00a0Ridley-Thomas “monetized” and abused the power of his office and lied to cover it up in order to help his son Sebastian,<\/strong> who had resigned from the state Assembly and was facing a sexual harassment investigation that had not yet gone public, the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n

However, defense attorney Galia Amram<\/strong> offered a different view, telling jurors that nothing her client is accused of was illegal, “if it was done in good faith.”\u00a0She said the main question for jurors to ponder is “what was in Mark Ridley-Thomas’ mind.” The then-supervisor “supported good things because they were good,” she said.<\/p>\n

For federal prosecutors, the answer is clear. To help himself and Sebastian and to protect the family name, Ridley-Thomas “reached out” to Marilyn Flynn<\/strong>, then the dean of the USC School of Social Work, to arrange a series of benefits for Sebastian.<\/p>\n

“He knew she was desperate and that she would do anything he asked,” Rybarczyk said, adding that under Flynn, the social work school was facing a multimillion-dollar budget deficit, a situation county contracts could help remedy.\u00a0“He would offer her a life raft” and preserve the family’s legacy, according to the federal prosecutor.<\/p>\n

Rybarczyk said that in exchange for Flynn arranging Sebastian’s admission to USC, a full-tuition scholarship and a paid professorship, Ridley-Thomas delivered on his end of the bargain. As a supervisor in 2017 and 2018, he voted on three county proposals that Flynn had sought to shore up her school’s shoddy financial situation, including a vote approving a lucrative amended telehealth agreement with the USC School of Social Work, prosecutors contend. He also allegedly sought to influence key county decision-makers associated with the approvals and made sure Flynn knew of his efforts.\u00a0The defense attorney, though, insisted that two of the three contracts were approved by the board before Sebastian heard he was the subject of a sexual harassment probe.<\/p>\n

Flynn admitted that she helped disguise and funnel $100,000 from Ridley-Thomas’ campaign account through the school to another nonprofit, United Ways of California<\/em>, for the benefit of the Policy, Research & Practice Initiative, a new nonprofit initiative founded by Sebastian, according to her plea agreement.\u00a0By funneling the payment through USC, Ridley-Thomas and co-defendant Flynn attempted to disguise the true source of the payment to make it appear as though USC, not the then-supervisor, was the generous benefactor supporting his son and PRPI, prosecutors say.<\/p>\n

“Funneling the money was legal under campaign finance law,” Amram told the jury, adding that none of the $100,000 “went into Sebastian’s pocket.”\u00a0She told the panel that although “you might not like the way it looks … it does not make it illegal.”<\/p>\n

Ridley-Thomas sat beside his attorneys as his wife watched from the audience.\u00a0The jury — which includes a woman accompanied by her emotional support dog — was seated on Tuesday, March 7, to hear the case.<\/p>\n

Flynn, 84, pleaded guilty in September to one count of bribery, admitting that she agreed to route money from Ridley-Thomas to Sebastian’s nonprofit. She is scheduled to be sentenced June 26.\u00a0Sebastian became a professor of social work and public policy at USC — despite lacking a graduate degree. He was later terminated over questions about his original appointment and concerns by the university over the $100,000 donation. He also obtained a full-tuition scholarship and graduate school admission, papers filed in federal court show.\u00a0Flynn was dean of the School of Social Work at USC for 21 years until her departure in 2018. She had originally been facing the same slate of federal charges as Ridley-Thomas.<\/p>\n

Responding to news of Flynn’s plea agreement, USC issued a statement last year saying that after the university learned during the summer of 2018 about unethical conduct by the former dean, “we quickly disclosed the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Marilyn Flynn has not been employed by the university since September 2018. USC is not a party to the criminal case but respects the judicial process.”<\/p>\n

Ridley-Thomas served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1991-2002, then serving in the state Assembly and state Senate before he was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2008, serving until 2020, when he returned to the Los City Council.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to go into next month.<\/p>\n

Previous related stories:<\/p>\n

Mark Ridley-Thomas sues to restore pay after suspension<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Former LACo Supervisor Ridley-Thomas criminal trial moved to November<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

August trial date set in Ridley-Thomas corruption case<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Mark Ridley-Thomas, ex-USC dean indicted in alleged bribery scheme<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Ridley-Thomas steered county contracts to USC’s social work school while he was a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in exchange for benefits for his son, a federal prosecutor told a jury on Wednesday, March 8, but the defense countered that nothing the veteran politician did was illegal and there was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":104616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719,1499,1496],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112879"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112881,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112879\/revisions\/112881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}