Ex-USC dean who bribed Mark Ridley-Thomas avoids prison with 18 months home confinement
The judge said she ‘seriously considered imprisonment’ for the 84-year-old and indicated a much harsher sentence is in store for the longtime Los Angeles politician.
A retired University of Southern California dean who admitted to bribing Los Angeles politician Mark Ridley-Thomas was ordered Monday to pay a $150,000 fine and stay in her home for 18 months under electronic monitoring.
Marilyn Flynn, 84, also will be on probation for three years. After U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer announced the sentence, Flynn’s lawyer asked her to instead allow Flynn to leave her home daily between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. The judge declined.
“I seriously considered imprisonment. I take it she prefers not to go to prison?” Fischer asked.
“That’s correct, Your Honor,” said Flynn’s lawyer Vicki Podberesky. Fischer made one exception: She isn’t making Flynn take drug tests because she “poses a low risk for future substance abuse.”
Before she was sentenced, Flynn told the judge she was “really greatly embarrassed, obviously, to be here today.”
“I think I would never have imagined that in a career of 50 years, that the culmination point would be a judgment of wrongdoing,” Flynn said. “I hope you understand that I deeply regret the consequences of my actions, my lapse in care.”
Flynn said she was most bothered by “the distress this has caused to the university and to the constituents in the School of Social Work.”
Flynn pleaded guilty in September 2022 to a single bribery charge related to $100,000 in USC money that she sent to United Ways about the same time Ridley-Thomas donated $100,000 in campaign money to USC.
The money was meant for a new nonprofit organization Ridley-Thomas’ son Sebastian Ridley-Thomas had started in the wake of his resignation from the California State Assembly amid a sexual harassment investigation. At the time, the elder Ridley-Thomas was chairman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Flynn admitted to acting as a conduit for the money in 2018 to try to influence the elder Ridley-Thomas’ actions regarding a change to a Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health contract regarding the Telehealth virtual counseling program that would send more money to her school. The two had previously memorialized their agreement in a sealed letter that Flynn had a USC employe hand deliver to Ridley-Thomas’ office.
In court Monday, Flynn’s lawyer Brian Hennigan asked for her to be sentenced to two years probation and no home confinement. He said Flynn was motivated “to do the public good” and expand a program “that would help the citizens” by agreeing to help Ridley-Thomas funnel money to his son’s nonprofit.
“Dr. Flynn understands she made a mistake by agreeing to the request. She understands she made a mistake by participating. But the one who pushed the idea was Mark Ridley-Thomas,” Hennigan told Fischer.
Flynn did not testify in Ridley-Thomas’ trial. A jury on March 30 convicted Ridley-Thomas of single counts of bribery and conspiracy, as well as four counts of honest services wire fraud and a single count of honest services mail fraud.
Jurors couldn’t agreed that Sebastian’s USC admission, scholarship and professorship were part of a conspiracy, which resulted in not guilty verdicts for one count of honest services mail fraud and 11 counts of honest services wire fraud because those counts were related to the scholarship and job.
Ridley-Thomas was removed from his elected position on the Los Angeles City Council after the verdict, and his sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 21.
Prosecutors have not yet filed their sentencing recommendation for Ridley-Thomas, but they said in Flynn’s recommendation that they will seek “a term of imprisonment for Ridley-Thomas for the reasons it will outline in depth in its sentence position.” A public relations specialist hired by Ridley-Thomas attended Monday’s hearing.
Hennigan referenced 25 support letters submitted to Judge Fischer by Flynn’s family, friends and former colleagues. He highlighted one from a student from China whom Flynn invited to stay in her home when she first arrived in the U.S. to attend USC School of Social Work and was unsure where she could live. The dean had a similar arrangement with several other students.
“Dr. Flynn is a very, very good person who has dedicated herself to the betterment of society,” Hennigan said.
Hennigan said home confinement would further cut Flynn off from her community and “be unduly harsh” when she’s already had to live with being ostracized and publicly humiliated.
“Her error in judgment and loss of ethical grounding that led to her involvement in this case have caused her great personal suffering, feelings of shame and remorse, and the loss of a storied career that she loved,” according to the 13-page defense memo prepared by Hennigan and Podberesky.
Prosecutors also distinguished Flynn from other bribery defendants because “her bribe was not intended to elicit a personal, private benefit for herself or someone close to her.”
“She was not a real estate developer, for example, bribing a high-level official for a multimillion-dollar contract to reap personal financial gain,” according to their 20-page memo.
“Although she indirectly benefitted from keeping her job and substantial salary by securing lucrative County contracts, those contracts were for the Social Work School and its work in the community, not a private business she owned,” prosecutors wrote.
In Ridley-Thomas’ trial, USC administrative assistant Adriana Gonzalez testified about Flynn’s desperation to send the $100,000, to United Ways, including telling Gonzalez she feared getting “in trouble” if the transaction didn’t happen immediately.
“The fact that defendant, a powerful woman in her own right, worried about getting ‘in trouble’ with Ridley-Thomas speaks to his power over defendant and the County business defendant so desperately needed,” according to the prosecution memo.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Greer Dotson told Judge Fischer on Monday that prosecutors recommended no prison time not because of Flynn’s age or health but because she admitted responsibility “which is a difficult thing to do, and she did so in a fulsome and unusual way.”
Flynn provided prosecutors with information about her own wrongdoing without trying to pass blame, Dotson said. She also didn’t do what Dotson said so many other criminal defendants do and exaggerate her health conditions to try to win sympathy at sentencing.
“To the government, it was actually something reassuring that we don’t often see,” Dotson saiid.
Flynn faced a standard sentencing range of 57 months to 71 months in prison under U.S. Sentencing Commission guidelines. Fischer said Flynn’s actions “weigh in favor of incarceration” and said her decision “will not comply very well” with the need to avoid “unwarranted sentencing disparities” for other criminal defendants. Fischer said placed “little weight” on Flynn’s health and age but believes Flynn’s “history and characteristics” are “a significant mitigating factor.”
“Dr. Flynn’s lifetime of decision to public service … is certainly something courts don’t often see, and it is indeed unfortunate that such an illustrious career has come to an end in such a way and with such public scrutiny,” Fischer said. “That is simply a consequence of her own actions.”
“Bribery of public officials is a very serious offense. … The public itself is a victim,” the judge continued. She called Ridley-Thomas “a very powerful political figure” and said the benefits he sought for his son “were obvious and significant.”
While she didn’t benefit directly, Flynn “had a personal interest in maintaining her position as dean and her national reputation,” Fischer said.
“This is indeed a unique factual scenario,” the judge said.
Flynn is to start home confinement by July 31. Fischer said she’ll recommend the U.S. Probation Office use something other than an ankle monitor to track her location. She can leave her home for medical appointments but must have prior approval.
Flynn’s confinement follows two international trips for Flynn since her indictment: Fisher allowed her to vacation in Italy last year, and she authorized her to travel to Botswana and Zimbabwe in May for a 16-day trip sponsored by the Phoenix Zoo.
Flynn’s letters of support are available below for paid subscribers. Paid subscribers also have access to the full archives, including all my coverage of Ridley-Thomas’ trial.