Скачать или смотреть ‘Power privilege and lies’ Ridley-Thomas trial examines alleged

At the start of the corruption trial of suspended Los Angeles City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, jurors on Wednesday heard conflicting portraits of the onetime power broker. His defense attorneys cast Ridley-Thomas as a lifelong public servant who represented the poorest communities of L. A. County and relied on USC, the largest private employer in his district, to help meet the social and health needs of his most vulnerable constituents. But to federal prosecutors, Ridley-Thomas was a conniving operator eager to “monetize” his position and conceal a sexual harassment investigation into his son, Sebastian, then a state Assembly member. To preserve the family’s political brand, the elder Ridley-Thomas helped engineer his son’s abrupt resignation from the Legislature, supposedly for medical reasons, and squeezed USC for favors to benefit his son, including a professorship and a scholarship, they say. Prosecutors allege he also routed $100, 000 through USC’s social work school to boost his son’s nonprofit. In exchange, prosecutors contend, Ridley-Thomas steered county contracts to USC’s financially troubled social work school as part of a corrupt scheme with its then-dean, Marilyn Flynn.“This case is about power, privilege and lies, ” Assistant U. S. Atty. Thomas Rybarczyk told jurors during his opening statement. He promised that during the next month of trial, they would see and hear testimony of Ridley-Thomas “abusing the power of his office” and “the lies he told to cover it up. ”Wearing a dark suit and burgundy tie, Ridley-Thomas, 68, watched quietly behind black frame glasses, occasionally whispering to his legal team. His wife, Avis, sat in the front row, while friends and supporters filled some of the courtroom’s pews. Ridley-Thomas is defending against a 19-count indictment that accuses him of bribery, conspiracy, and honest services mail and wire fraud. If convicted, the charges carry up to decades in prison. The accusations in the case stem from his time on L. County’s Board of Supervisors, when he was one of five people that oversee a $30-billion annual budget and vote on contracts for child welfare, mental health and other public services. The alleged scheme centers on votes Ridley-Thomas made on contracts and agreements related to the Department of Children and Family Services; training programs for probation employees; and remote mental health treatment for at-risk youths, among others. Ridley-Thomas’ defense attorney, Galia Amram, leaned into the complexities of being a county supervisor as she flatly denied the elaborate corruption alleged by prosecutors.“You just heard a story that you were asked to believe — the story of Mark Ridley-Thomas selling his vote, ” Amram said in her opening statement. “That did not happen. ”Instead, she said, Ridley-Thomas had established legitimate partnerships with USC leaders long before any alleged conspiracy, including with Flynn and then-President C. L. Max Nikias.


All data is taken from the source: http://latimes.com
Article Link: https://www.latimes.com/california/st...


#thomas #newsstory #newsworldabc #bbcnewstoday #newstodayupdate #newstodayusa #