Day 1 of jury deliberations complete in Ridley-Thomas' conspiracy trial
Jurors completed their first full day of deliberations on Monday without reaching a verdict in the federal criminal trial of suspended Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is accused of steering lucrative county contracts to USC's social work school in exchange for a slate of benefits for his son.
Jurors deliberated from 8 a.m. until about 2:30 p.m. Monday, sending notes twice to the judge. In the first, the panel asked for a read back of testimony by defense expert witness Ann Ravel, a former chair of the Federal Election Commission, who testified that a $100,000 money transfer from Ridley-Thomas to USC, then to United Ways of California and finally to the politician's son's nonprofit — alleged by prosecutors to be an attempt to disguise the money's origins — was entirely legal.
The jury also asked for clarification of the meaning of acting “corruptly” in regard to the allegations of honest services mail and wire fraud against RidleyThomas.
Prosecutors rested their rebuttal case early Friday before the jury panel was sworn in and deliberations began around 10 a.m. in Los Angeles federal court, lasting about 41/2 hours.
The jury had a question late Friday about certain elements of “bribery” and whether a “thing of value” had to be a tangible item to the defendant. On Monday morning, the jury was handed a note with an answer satisfactory to both sides.
In closing arguments, prosecutors said RidleyThomas, while serving as a county supervisor, “put his hand out” and accepted perks from USC for his son Sebastian, who needed media-friendly “landing spots” after resigning from the state Assembly in the midst of a brewing scandal.
A defense lawyer strenuously denied the narrative, telling the jury that nothing Ridley-Thomas did was illegal.
“This was a case about power, privilege and lies,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Dotson said in her summation, describing the trial as dealing with “one of the most powerful politicians in Los Angeles who leveraged his power — and all the lies he told to cover it up.”
Ridley-Thomas, 68, of South Los Angeles, faces 19 federal counts, including conspiracy, bribery, and honest services mail and wire fraud. If convicted as charged, he could be sentenced to years behind bars.
He did not testify in his own defense.
Before the jury was handed the case, U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer warned the panel to avoid “unconscious biases” and preconceived notions of race. The 12-member panel chosen from throughout the region includes a handful of non-white jurors.
Prosecutors allege that testimony and a long trail of emails and letters prove 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.
In addition, RidleyThomas allegedly participated in a secret money laundering scheme whereby Flynn funneled $100,000 “seed money” from the politician's campaign fund through the school to the Policy, Research & Practice Initiative, a nonprofit operated by his son who had recently stepped down from the state Assembly amid an internal sexual harassment probe that was about to go public at the peak of the #MeToo movement.
“This is a political family — and this is a crisis for them,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Morse said in his rebuttal argument.
With the scandal about to break and the RidleyThomas name and legacy under threat, the then-supervisor looked for ways for his son to return to work in a prominent, media-friendly position, prosecutors alleged.
“The defense has argued that there's nothing to see here, that it's not illegal,” Morse told jurors. “Well, it is illegal. … He used his position as a public official to extract things of value (from Flynn).”
Defense attorney Daralyn Durie countered that there was nothing illegal about the $100,000 transaction or Ridley-Thomas' support of three contracts that prosecutors claim would've helped remedy the troubled financial situation at Flynn's school.