Another Los Angeles politician goes down for corruption. No wonder aspiring voters are so cynical about casting a vote.

Thursday’s sentencing

former

suspended Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas on federal bribery and conspiracy charges only reinforces the skeptics’ storyline, why vote? Politicians are all corrupt and doing it for themselves. That’s not true, of course, but it’s harder to make the point when he’s the third Los Angeles councilman convicted of corruption charges in recent years.

Ridley-Thomas was found guilty of conspiring with the former dean of USC’s School of Social Work to send provincial contracts to the school in exchange for his son’s admission to the graduate program with a full-tuition scholarship and a paid professorship. Ridley-Thomas was on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors at the time.

Prosecutors argued that Ridley-Thomas pushed through in 2017 and 2018 after his son Sebastian, then a member of the State Assembly, learned he was under investigation for sexual harassment. They said he was motivated to secure a good landing spot for his son to avoid damaging his family’s political machine. Ridley-Thomas was expected to run for mayor in 2022, but announced his decision to stay out of the race a few months before he was nominated.

Former USC dean Marilyn Flynn pleaded guilty to bribery last year for agreeing to send $100,000 from the Ridley-Thomas campaign fund through USC to a nonprofit run by his son.

Defense attorneys argued that the transfer of the money was not illegal and that Ridley-Thomas was not bribed because he would have voted to support the district contracts with USC anyway. But jurors were not convinced. Ridley Thomas stood for 19 counts; jurors found him guilty of seven counts, including conspiracy, bribery, honest services fraud and four counts of honest services fraud.

The conviction is especially shocking because Ridley-Thomas is a giant in Los Angeles politics. A civil rights activist turned politician, he held elected office for 30 years, first on the LA City Council from 1991 to 2002, then on the state legislature, on the county board of supervisors, and finally elected in 2020 to a final four-year term in the city council.

He has been one of LA’s most influential

policymakers, helped rebuild South LA after the 1992 riots, pushed for police reform, oversaw the reopening of the Martin Luther King Medical Center in Willowbrook, the hospital once called “Killer King,” and most recently helped them in leading efforts in LA and California for humane solutions to the homeless crisis.

And he has remained a powerful figure at a time when scandal might have deterred supporters. Ridley-Thomas raised nearly $1.5 million for his legal defense from wealthy and well-connected donors, which enabled him to hire top-notch attorneys. He rallied his supporters into a well-organized legal and public relations force on his behalf, including filling the courtroom at trial.

The conviction certainly affects Ridley-Thomas’ legacy. He was suspended from the council in 2021,

;

and the felony conviction means he can’t return. But the verdict has a more damaging effect on public confidence as it is only the most recent.

Former councilors Mitch Englander and Jose Huizar were indicted as part of a federal investigation into pay-to-play corruption involving real estate development in the city. Englander pleaded guilty in 2020 and has since served his time and has been released from federal prison. Huizar, who pleaded guilty in January, was believed to be the mastermind behind the illegal scheme to extort $1.5 million in bribes from developers.

The totality of the cases paints a troubled picture of Los Angeles leaders. Who do they serve? The public or himself? That does not help build trust in government or promote healthy civic engagement. The US government may have won its case against Ridley-Thomas, but a fresh conviction for corruption is hardly worth celebrating.