The conviction Thursday of suspended Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas on federal bribery and conspiracy charges only reinforces the skeptics’ storyline — why bother to vote? Politicians are all corrupt and in it for themselves. That’s not true, of course, but it’s harder to argue the point when he is the third Los Angeles council member convicted on corruption charges over the last several years.
Ridley-Thomas was found guilty of conspiring with the former dean of USC’s School of Social Work to steer county contracts to the school in exchange for admitting his son into the graduate program with a full-tuition scholarship and paid professorship. Ridley-Thomas was on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors at the time.
Prosecutors argued Ridley-Thomas pushed the quid pro quo in 2017 and 2018 after his son Sebastian, then a member of the state Assembly, learned he was being investigated for sexual harassment. They said he was motivated to secure a good landing spot for his son to avoid hurting his family’s political machine. Ridley-Thomas was expected to run for mayor in 2022, but announced his decision to stay out of the race a few months before he was indicted.
The former USC dean, Marilyn Flynn, pleaded guilty last year to bribery for agreeing to route $100,000 from Ridley-Thomas’ campaign fund through USC to a nonprofit run by his son.
Defense attorneys argued that the transfer of the money wasn’t illegal and Ridley-Thomas wasn’t bribed because he would have voted to support the county contracts with USC anyway. But jurors weren’t convinced. Ridley-Thomas was facing 19 counts; jurors found him guilty of seven, including conspiracy, bribery, honest services mail fraud and four counts of honest services wire fraud.
The conviction is particularly jarring because Ridley-Thomas is a giant in Los Angeles politics. A civil rights activist turned politician, he held elected office for 30 years, first serving on the L.A. City Council from 1991 to 2002, then in the state Legislature, on the county Board of Supervisors and finally elected in 2020 to a final four-year term on the City Council.
He’s been one of L.A.’s most influential policymakers, helping rebuild South L.A. after the 1992 riots, pushing for police reform, overseeing the reopening of Martin Luther King Medical Center in Willowbrook — the hospital once called “Killer King”— and most recently helping lead the effort in L.A. and California for humane solutions to the homelessness crisis.
And he’s remained a powerful figure at a time when scandal might have scared away supporters. Ridley-Thomas raised nearly $1.5 million for his legal defense from wealthy and well-connected donors, which allowed him to hire top-notch lawyers. He rallied his supporters into a well-organized legal and public relations force on his behalf, including packing the courtroom through the trial.
The conviction tarnishes Ridley-Thomas’ legacy, certainly. He was suspended from the council in 2021, and the felony conviction means he cannot return. But there is a more pernicious effect on public trust from the verdict, given that it is only the most recent.
Former Councilmembers Mitch Englander and Jose Huizar were indicted as part of a federal investigation into pay-to-play corruption involving real estate development in the city. Englander pleaded guilty in 2020 and has since served his time and been released from federal prison. Huizar, who pleaded guilty in January, was considered the mastermind behind the illegal scheme to extort $1.5 million in bribes from developers.
The totality of the cases paint a troubling picture of Los Angeles leaders. Who are they serving? The public or themselves? That doesn’t help build trust in government or foster healthy civic engagement. The U.S. government may have won its case against Ridley-Thomas, but another corruption conviction is hardly worth celebrating.