By FRED SHUSTER
LOS ANGELES — Jury deliberations resumed Tuesday in the federal criminal trial of suspended L.A. City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is accused of steering lucrative county contracts to USC’s social work school in exchange for a slate of benefits for his son.
The panel completed its first full day of deliberations on Monday, working from 8 a.m. until about 2:30 p.m. and sending two notes to the judge.
In the first note, the panel asked for a read back of testimony by defense expert witness Ann Ravel, a former chair of the Federal Election Commission, who testified that a $100,000 money transfer from Ridley-Thomas to USC, then to United Ways of California and finally to the politician’s son’s nonprofit — a string of transactions alleged by prosecutors to be an illegal attempt to disguise the money’s origins — was entirely legal.
The jury also asked for clarification of the meaning of acting “corruptly” in regard to allegations of honest services mail and wire fraud against Ridley-Thomas.
Prosecutors rested their rebuttal case early Friday before the jury panel was sworn in and deliberations began around 10 a.m. in Los Angeles federal court, lasting about 4 1/2 hours.
The jury had a question late Friday about certain elements of “bribery” and whether a “thing of value” had to be a tangible item to the defendant. On Monday morning the jury was handed a note with an answer satisfactory to both sides.
In closing arguments, prosecutors said Ridley-Thomas, while serving as a county supervisor, “put his hand out” and accepted perks from USC for his son Sebastian, who needed media-friendly “landing spots” after resigning from the state Assembly in the midst of a brewing scandal.
A defense lawyer strenuously denied the narrative, telling the jury in downtown Los Angeles that nothing Ridley-Thomas did was illegal.
“This was a case about power, privilege and lies,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Dotson said in…
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