USC ex-dean, LA politician charged with bribery scheme

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles politician Mark Ridley-Thomas and a former dean at the University of Southern California have been charged with a bribery scheme in which he promised to steer millions of dollars in contracts to the school if his son got a scholarship and a teaching job. A 20-count federal indictment revealed Wednesday names Ridley-Thomas, who’s an LA City Council member, and Marilyn Louise Flynn, former dean of USC’s School of Social Work. Authorities say the bargain was made in 2017. Late that year, Ridley-Thomas’s son, Sebastian, resigned his state Assembly seat. An Assembly investigation concluded in 2019 that Sebastian had likely made an unwanted sexual advance toward a Capitol staffer.