The federal corruption trial of suspended Los Angeles City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas is now in the hands of the jury after the prosecution and defense made their closing arguments Thursday.
In her summation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Dotson acknowledged there was no single document that laid out a conspiracy between Ridley-Thomas and the dean of USC’s School of Social Work. The conspiracy allegedly involved Ridley-Thomas securing lucrative county contracts for the school in exchange for the dean providing the councilmember’s son with a scholarship and faculty job.
But Dotson pointed to a flurry of emails and calls between Ridley-Thomas and Social Work School Dean Marilyn Flynn starting in 2017 and running through 2018 that revealed “winks and nods” — including one email with a winking emoji and another with a fist bump emoji.
There is “no question he acted corruptly,” Dotson said of Ridley-Thomas. The fact that the county approved the contract for USC and Ridley-Thomas’ son Sebastian got a scholarship and a job with the school “is not a coincidence,” she said.
‘Winks and nods work’
Just the suggestion of an exchange of benefits is enough, said Dotson, asserting, “winks and nods work. That’s how the real world works.”
In one email, Ridley-Thomas told Flynn, “Your wish is my command,” the prosecutor said.
Dotson said Ridley-Thomas was ‘constantly dangling county carrots to Marilyn Flynn” at a time when the School of Social Work was in financial trouble.
Dotson referred to an email Flynn wrote to a colleague regarding potential money for the university in which Flynn wrote, ”I’m holding my…
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