"Is Karen Bass Under Federal Investigation?" by Daniel Guss
A nugget I stumbled upon months ago remains in-place and keeps me wondering.
@TheGussReport - This morning, long-time Los Angeles politician Mark Ridley-Thomas, 68, will find out how much of the rest of his life will be spent in federal prison.
There is a nearly zero percent chance that his request for home confinement will be granted by U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer, the most glaring reason being that Ridley-Thomas forced the Justice Department to go to trial to prove his guilt. The second is that his accomplice, Marilyn Flynn, the former dean of USC’s social work program, took a plea deal that included her helping the government convict Ridley-Thomas. According to Matt Hamilton at the LA Times, “Federal prosecutors have said that Flynn took responsibility ‘in a fulsome and extraordinary manner,’ noting that she pleaded guilty without filing ‘frivolous’ litigation and averting a trial, and that she even offered up evidence that incriminated herself, according to court papers.”
To date, Ridley-Thomas remains defiant.
Defiance is a bad posture heading into sentencing with the same judge who gave Flynn 18 months of home confinement, a $150,000 fine and three years probation, though Flynn’s age, 84, may have also played a role in the sentencing by Fischer, a 1980 graduate of Harvard Law School.
Even with Flynn’s cooperation, Fischer “seriously considered imprisonment” for her, according to the Times.
As I wrote back in April, the rich irony in Ridley-Thomas’s denouement is that he committed his crimes while simultaneously ignoring his own advice to LA governments’ biggest big-mouthed critics, fondly quoting rapper Ice Cube, “you better check yo' self before you wreck yo' self.”
BERNIE PARKS GETS THE LAST LAUGH…SO FAR
If you hadn’t heard, former Councilmember and LAPD Chief Bernie Parks, who demonstrated on more than one occasion that he was willing to stand alone, or in a very small minority, on important issues, submitted a sentencing letter to Fischer (via federal prosecutors) encouraging her to essentially throw the book at Ridley-Thomas, his longtime rival.
Parks made strong, salient points in the letter.
History has shown that Parks was usually correct in his aforementioned positions, though it took some of us years to recognize his wisdom due, in part, to his aloofness.
But in LA, one good turn of the screw deserves another, doesn’t it?
Parks’ letter to Fischer uses images of the City of LA’s seal, as well as of an LAPD Chief’s badge, which prompted a cease and desist order from the city, as well as an Ethics complaint for alleged misuse of the seal for non-city business.
THE PRICE IS FIGHT
Later this morning, another LA City Councilmember will be arraigned on a slew of unrelated corruption charges.
In that case, Curren Price, 72, postures that he will fight the charges that could, likewise, send him to prison for much of the rest of his life. The conduct which led to some of his charges were exclusively addressed by this column in early 2017, while the LA Times largely looked the other way.
Price would be even more foolish than Ridley-Thomas to go to trial, because the allegations against him don’t require a co-conspirator to “turn state’s evidence” against him for a conviction. Much of the case is well-documented in his City Council votes, in health insurance-related declarations he swore under oath were true and in statements he made to the media and — perhaps — others.
There is little doubt in my mind that Price will eventually take a plea deal, as I suspect additional charges may be coming his way, both in terms of additional counts of the crimes for which he is already charged and potentially new criminal charges altogether. His lawyers would be wise to get him a plea deal that universally wraps things up for Price with the LA County District Attorney’s office before things get worse.
That assumes other prosecutorial agencies don’t file charges, as well.
BASS FISHING
In the spring, I came across a nugget of information while exploring how LA Mayor Karen Bass got a free ride for a master’s degree in social work from USC, which apparently involved Flynn, while Bass influenced the use of public funds for USC as a member of Congress.
Sometimes, you just stumble upon things.
Matt Hamilton’s October ‘22 story for the Times’ explores the subject, and the 2 Urban Girls blog raised important questions about Bass’s explanations in December ‘21.
A few months after I stumbled upon that nugget of information, it remains hanging out there.
While the Ridley-Thomas and Bass engagements with the troubled USC program are similar, they are not identical. But they are sufficiently close that, considering “The Nugget,” I have reason to believe that she is presently under investigation by the feds.
KEEP ‘EM COMING
Regardless, it looks like local and federal corruption prosecutors are nowhere near done with LA politicians or their surrogates, including the LAPD and LAFD, nor should they be.
Does anyone really believe that we now know everything that we need to know about local government corruption that also sent or will send former Councilmembers Mitch Englander and Jose Huizar, respectively, to federal prison?
That is exactly how the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal made big headlines in recent years. Somebody knew a few things in an unrelated federal case in Boston and spilled the beans in a plea deal with prosecutors.
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(Daniel Guss, MBA, is a multi-award-winning journalist. In June ‘23, he won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards. He has been City Editor for the Mayor Sam network, and a featured contributor for CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)