Closing arguments heard in Ridley-Thomas corruption trial

By Fred Shuster, City News Service

Metro moves forward to extend current law enforcement contracts

By City News Service

sors — is accused of routing county contracts to the USC School of Social Work in exchange for benefits to his son.

Prosecutors alleged that Ridley-Thomas in April 2018 arranged for the former dean of the school, Marilyn Flynn, to funnel $100,000 from his campaign account through the school to a nonprofit operated by his son, Sebastian, who had recently resigned from the state Assembly amid a sexual harassment probe.

Prosecutors contend the politician wanted to provide the money to support his son’s nonprofit, but didn’t want the funds linked to him or his campaign. So he agreed to provide the money to Flynn, who sent $100,000 in university funds to the nonprofit, known as the Policy, Research & Practice Initiative.

Flynn and Ridley-Thomas concealed the arrangement from USC, knowing it would have violated university policy, prosecutors said.

“If you’re going to bring charges, you better be right and you better do your homework,” Durie said in her summation. “What happened at USC was legal.”

Flynn pleaded guilty in September to one count of bribery, admitting that she agreed to steer money from the then-supervisor to Sebastian’s nonprofit.

The LA Metro Board of Directors voted Thursday to negotiate and extend its current multi-agency transit law enforcement contracts with modifications for up to three additional years, through June 2026.

This purpose is to explore alternative ways to ensure public safety such as forming an in-house police department, according to Metro.

“Accountability and culture are paramount,” said James Butts, Mayor of Inglewood and a member of the Board of Directors. “We have to go on to extend into the future. We don’t have any choice.”

At the board’s February 2017 meeting, Metro approved the awarding of three individual five-year, firm-fixed unit rate contracts with the Los Angeles Police Department, Long Beach Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to support its day-to-day bus and rail operations across Metro’s entire service area. Those contracts are set to expire on June 30.

According to a staff report, the 2017 contracts are valued approximately $645.7 million but were amended seven times for a total contract value over the six-year period of approximately $911.9 million.

As part of Metro’s efforts to consider alternative methods for public safety, in April 2022, the agency issued a request for proposals for transit law enforcement services and a total of five proposals were received in October 2022.

Four of those proposals were multi-agency and the other was a single, system-wide proposal, according to Metro staff. However, the single system-wide proposal was withdrawn, and the other four failed to meet the overall needs as required in the RFP.

Metro staff recommended its board to extend the

Suspended Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas sold his vote while serving as a county supervisor for a series of benefits for his son, a federal prosecutor told a downtown jury Thursday, but a defense lawyer countered that nothing the longtime politician did was illegal.

“This was a case about power, privilege and lies,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Greer Dotson said in her closing argument, telling jurors that the trial dealt 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. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Daralyn Durie, one of Ridley-Thomas’ lawyers, told the panel in her argument that the government’s case against her client “was fundamentally about optics” and that the investigation was “not thorough enough.”

“I don’t think the evidence that was presented by the government was the whole story. I think they left out some pretty important pieces,” Durie said.

Ridley-Thomas — then a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervi-

But defense attorney Galia Amram said in her opening statement two weeks ago that there was no quid pro quo arrangement involving Flynn and RidleyThomas.

“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.”

See Ridley-Thomas Page 28