When a jury in L.A. last month convicted former Los Angeles County Supervisor and suspended city Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas on seven counts of bribery and fraud, it showed that no one is above the law. It also shed a critical, revealing light on actions by other civic players leading up to and during the trial that deserve a reckoning of their own.
The guilty verdicts mark a defeat for the public-relations campaign by Ridley-Thomas and his allies leading up to his trial that succeeded in muting criticism and, for some, muddying the waters over the federal charges of self-dealing he faced.
Ridley-Thomas’ crimes stem from a pivotal year of his tenure on the county Board of Supervisors when he chaired the five-member executive body. This key distinction has been all but lost in coverage of the case against him. It underscores the abuse of power and blow to public trust he dealt to County residents by using public resources as bargaining chips to gain favorable treatment for his son and to funnel campaign funds through two charities to help his son claim a university job.
The guilty verdicts reaffirm the need for more active scrutiny by Angelenos of our office-holders and more scrupulous attention to ethics as a priority in evaluating and choosing candidates for elected office. This obligation includes Democrats, who hold most elected positions locally and statewide.
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Ridley-Thomas’ crimes occurred during his time in County governance. His return to L.A. City Council by voters in Nov. 2020 and suspension by peers upon his indictment in Oct. 2021 frame a grim fact: He is the third Councilmember to face criminal penalties for corruption in the past five years, alongside Mitch Englander, a Republican, and José Huizar, a fellow Democrat.
Let’s start with those who emerge less than admirably from the Ridley-Thomas case. Unlike the heroes to be named below, these entities get zeroes for their entanglement in the wrongdoing or non-positive role in the reckoning for it.
First is USC. The now-disgraced former dean of social work, Marilyn Flynn, pleaded guilty to bribery in Sept. 2022. But the federal criminal trial of Ridley-Thomas also featured details of how other USC staff may have collaborated to funnel campaign money through the university to set up Ridley-Thomas’ son in a sinecure, financed in part through those funds.
Another zero goes to a second nonprofit conduit in this scheme: United Way. No reputable charity should be party to a shell game of money like this involving blatant self-interest by the originator and the ultimate recipient.
Other “zeroes” include former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, who contributed $25,000 to a Ridley-Thomas legal defense fund, and former chair of the Federal Elections Commission Ann Ravel. She created confusion among jurors in the case by asserting that the scheme to funnel money through the charities was legal. As the jury found, Ridley-Thomas’ aim in doing so was plainly not.
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Heroes in the case should not be forgotten in the hoopla surrounding the guilty verdicts.
Foremost is the USC whistleblower. Holding true to the adage “when you see something, say something,” this noble functionary inside the scandal-plagued institution alerted colleagues to the highly unusual requests to transfer money through university accounts to another charity outside the university. In a sea of spreadsheets and compromises, this small act of conscience gives hope for professionalism and public integrity.
Also deserving of kudos are former L.A. City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, who brought forward the motion to suspend his colleague Ridley-Thomas in Oct. 2021, and Supervisors Hilda Solis and Kathryn Barger. They authored the County resolution to launch an independent investigation by an outside law firm to flag any other potential instances of self-dealing by Supervisors like that Ridley-Thomas stood accused of. The report from that probe remains outstanding.
Finally, credit is due to the twelve jurors who carefully weighed the evidence over five days’ deliberation and, undeterred by the defendant’s exalted status, unanimously found him guilty. Voters, not the FBI or federal courts, should be the front line of accountability for public servants and ethics in government. But our democracy is stronger when ordinary people do their civic duty in the court system, too, and apply the law without fear or favor.
Hans Johnson is an advocate for ethics in government and president of the East Area Progressive Democrats, the largest grassroots partisan club in L.A. County.
