Former Los Angeles City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, convicted on bribery and fraud charges, has asked a federal judge to discard the jury’s guilty verdicts and grant him a new trial in the high-profile corruption case.
Lawyers for Ridley-Thomas argued in a motion filed this week that prosecutorial misconduct, misstatements of the law, and inaccurate and “improper testimony” by the lead FBI agent on the case all deprived the longtime politician of a fair trial.
The motion comes more than a month after a jury found Ridley-Thomas, 68, guilty of four counts of honest services wire fraud and one count each of bribery, conspiracy and honest services mail fraud. The case stemmed from his time as a member of L.A. County’s powerful Board of Supervisors and involved his support of a contract with USC’s School of Social Work for TeleHealth, a virtual mental health treatment program run by the university.
In their verdict, jurors decided that Ridley-Thomas corruptly routed $100,000 from his political campaign fund through USC, then instructed the university to send the money to United Ways of California, where the funds would go toward his son’s new nonprofit.
Jurors acquitted Ridley-Thomas of 12 other fraud charges related to a scholarship and job his son received from USC around the time when the politician was voting on other matters sought by the university.
The split verdict instantly ended Ridley-Thomas term as an L.A. City Council member and stunned L.A.’s political...
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