U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer sentenced former L.A. City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, 68, to three years and six months today, August 28. Judge Fischer also ordered Ridley-Thomas to pay a $30,000 fine.
Ridley-Thomas must report to prison on November 13 and will remain out of custody until then. Judge Fischer initially set his report date for November 6, but pushed the date back one week because the original report date is the birthday of Ridley-Thomas.
Jurors convicted Ridley-Thomas on March 30 of seven felonies – bribery, conspiracy, four counts of honest services wire fraud, and one count of honest services mail fraud. The sentencing of Ridley-Thomas, initially scheduled for August 21, was pushed back one week due to an impending storm potentially impacting the travel of his defense team.
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Ridley-Thomas’s convictions stemmed from his time as an L.A. County Board of Supervisors member. A jury found Ridley-Thomas guilty of honest services fraud for sending a $100,000 donation from a fund to USC’s School of Social Work. Jurors on the case accepted the prosecutor’s assertions that Ridley-Thomas knew the university would route the donation to a nonprofit run by his son, Sebastian. Prosecutors alleged that the actions of Ridley-Thomas were part of a broader conspiracy where he received benefits from USC in exchange for his support of county business for the university.
Prosecutors previously asked Judge Fischer to sentence former L.A. City Council member Ridley-Thomas to six years behind bars following his convictions, along with three years of supervised release and a $30,000 fine.
The defense attorneys for Ridley-Thomas asked for a term of home confinement, community service, and a fine with no prison time. The defense team sought a probationary sentence along the lines of the punishment received by his co-defendant, Marilyn Louise Flynn, 83, the former dean of the USC School of Social Work.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
