Ex-USC Dean Sentenced to House Confinement for Bribery of Los Angeles County Supervisor

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former dean on the College of Southern California was sentenced to 1 1/2 years of dwelling confinement on Monday for bribing a Los Angeles County supervisor in alternate for renewal of a profitable contract.

Marilyn Flynn additionally was ordered to pay $150,000. U.S. District Choose Dale S. Fischer mentioned she thought-about sending Flynn to jail however determined as a substitute on dwelling confinement, noting that the previous educational had rapidly taken duty for her actions.

Flynn, 84, was dean of USC’s Faculty of Social Work from 1997 to 2018. She pleaded guilty last year to a federal bribery cost. Prosecutors mentioned that in 2018, she concocted a scheme to funnel $100,000 that Mark Ridley-Thomas offered from marketing campaign funds by the college to a nonprofit run by his son.

Ridley-Thomas supplied to assist county contracts for USC’s Faculty of Social Work that might doubtlessly carry the establishment hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in new income in return for serving to his son, prosecutors mentioned.

Sebastian Ridley-Thomas was a state assemblyman who resigned the final day of 2017 whereas going through allegations that he made an undesirable sexual advance towards a Capitol staffer. The $100,000 went to his group, often known as the Coverage, Analysis & Apply Initiative, prosecutors mentioned.

The son later acquired a $26,000 graduate scholarship for 2018 and was supplied a paid instructing place with a $50,000 wage, regardless that being a scholar and a instructor would violate faculty coverage, authorities mentioned.

Mark Ridley-Thomas additionally has been a Los Angeles Metropolis Council member, a California State senator and a state Meeting member. In March, the then-councilman was convicted of federal corruption prices. He may face years in jail when he’s sentenced subsequent month.

At her sentencing listening to, Flynn mentioned she was “significantly embarrassed” and deeply regretted the misery brought on to USC by her “lapse in care.”

“I feel I’d by no means think about that in a profession of fifty years, the end result level could be a judgment of wrongdoing,” she mentioned.

“A lifetime of dedication and repair is one thing courts don’t typically see,” Fischer mentioned, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. “It’s unlucky that such an illustrious profession involves an finish (on this means).”

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.