{"id":2014734,"date":"2023-08-28T19:52:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-28T23:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-la-councilman-ridley-thomas-gets-over-3-years-in-prison-in-corruption-case\/"},"modified":"2023-08-28T19:52:45","modified_gmt":"2023-08-28T23:52:45","slug":"former-la-councilman-ridley-thomas-gets-over-3-years-in-prison-in-corruption-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-la-councilman-ridley-thomas-gets-over-3-years-in-prison-in-corruption-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-LA Councilman Ridley-Thomas sentenced to 3+ years in corruption case."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-la-councilman-ridley-thomas-gets-over-3-years-in-prison-in-corruption-case%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2014734&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div data-post-content=\"true\" class=\"post_content\" id=\"post_content\">\n<h2>Los \u2063Angeles County \u200bPolitician Sentenced to Prison for Corruption<\/h2>\n<p>Prominent Los \u2062Angeles County politician \u2064Mark Ridley-Thomas has been sentenced to three years \u2064and six months in prison for his involvement in a \u200bcorruption scandal. The\u200c charges stem\u200b from his voting in \u200bfavor\u2063 of county contracts that\u200c would benefit the University of Southern California while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-la-councilman-ridley-thomas-gets-over-3-years-in-prison-in-corruption-case\/\" title=\"Ex-LA Councilman Ridley-Thomas sentenced to 3+ years in corruption case.\">accepting personal benefits<\/a> for \u2064his son from the university.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The entire community has been victimized by the \u200cdefendant&#8217;s crimes,&#8221; \u200dU.S. District Judge Dale \u200cS. Fischer \u200dsaid during the sentencing hearing inside a packed downtown Los Angeles\u200c courtroom.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Fischer added that Mr. Ridley-Thomas &#8220;has committed serious crimes, has not accepted responsibility, and has shown no remorse.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Related Stories<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/former-usc-dean-sentenced-in-mark-<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/l-a-democrat-running-for-mayor-wants-city-to-resume-daytime-ban-on-homeless-encampments\/\" title=\"L.A. Democrat Running For Mayor Wants City To Resume Daytime Ban On Homeless Encampments\">ridley-thomas<\/a>-bribery-case-5419702&#8243;>Former USC \u2063Dean\u200b Sentenced in Mark\u200c Ridley-Thomas Bribery Case<\/a> &#8211; 7\/24\/2023<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/judge-hears-los-angeles-politician-ridley-thomass-bid-for-acquittal-new-trial-5359637\">Judge Hears Los Angeles\u200c Politician Ridley-Thomas&#8217;s Bid for Acquittal, New Trial<\/a> \u200b &#8211; \u200c6\/28\/2023<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition \u2064to the prison time, \u200dMr.\u200d Ridley-Thomas has been ordered to serve three years on supervised release and\u200d pay fines\u200d of \u2062$30,700. He must also \u2063apologize\u2062 to his family and constituents for the\u2063 position he put them in.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors had requested a six-year prison sentence, describing the politician&#8217;s actions as a &#8220;shakedown&#8221; that undermines the integrity of the democratic system.<\/p>\n<p>Defense attorneys argued for a probationary sentence or home confinement, but the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/one-fathers-nightmare-battle-for-3-year-old-son-mom-is-raising-non-binary\/\" title=\"One Father\u2019s Nightmare Battle For 3-Year-Old Son Mom Is Raising \u2018Non-Binary\u2019\">judge ultimately decided<\/a> on \u200dprison time.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Ridley-Thomas, a former\u2063 state legislator,\u200b city councilman, and county supervisor, was convicted on\u200b multiple charges, \u2063including \u200cconspiracy, bribery, and \u200dfraud.<\/p>\n<p>His\u200c co-defendant, Marilyn Flynn,\u200d received 18 months of home confinement and a fine for her involvement in the bribery scheme.<\/p>\n<p>The sentencing has drawn attention from\u200d the community, with retired Los Angeles Police Department chief Bernard Parks urging the judge to impose the highest penalty\u2063 possible. Parks\u2062 emphasized that Ridley-Thomas&#8217; crimes not only victimized his colleagues \u2064but \u200calso undermined the public&#8217;s faith in the judicial process.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecution \u200dalleges \u2062that Ridley-Thomas used his \u2063position to solicit \u2063support from colleagues while concealing his corrupt behavior. They claim that he demanded \u200dfavors from Flynn in exchange \u200cfor county business.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prominent LA politician Mark Ridley-Thomas sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for voting on USC contracts while accepting benefits for his son. U.S. claims the community has suffered due to his crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":2014735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2014734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2014734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2014735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2014734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2014734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2014734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}