Los Angeles Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas’s legal defense has raised $1.5 million from high-profile donors from around the City with two-thirds coming from him.
The list was revealed by the Los Angeles Times a day before jury selection begins tomorrow in a federal courtroom. The itemized list is available on the city’s ethics website.
Elected officials shared over the weekend that they were contacted by the councilman to attend a prayer service for him held yesterday which some declined to attend.
The bulk of the funds were raised between February 2022, four months after Ridley-Thomas was indicted, and continued through his co-conspirator Marilyn Flynn pleading guilty in September 2022.
Five days after Flynn pleaded guilty, Ridley-Thomas contributed close to $60,000 to the fund and an additional $25,000 on Dec. 15, eight days after the Los Angeles City Council reinstated his salary and benefits. He received about $265,000 in back pay and an additional $99,500 for legal fees.
After a review of his campaign statements for his defense fund, only one current and one former elected official appears to have donated. So who donated?
- Dodgers owner Frank McCourt ($25,000)
- L.A. City Councilmember Curren Price ($1,000)
- Charles E. Blake, presiding bishop emeritus of the Church of God in Christ ($10,000)
- Bruce Karatz, former chief executive of KB Home ($10,000)
- Peter Chernin and his wife, philanthropist Megan Chernin ($75,000)
- Carol Biondi ($30,000)
- Thomas Safran ($8.200)
- Kenneth Ulmer ($1,000)
- Rod Wright ($500)
- Danny Bakewell ($1,000)
- Dan Rosenfeld, Community Partners ($1,600)
“I can’t do this without your help,” Ridley-Thomas said in an email soliciting donations to one of his defense funds last spring. “You know me. You know my heart. You know I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t need you now.”
The Times reached out to several donors to the legal fund with many feigning no knowledge of the charges.
“I don’t know the facts. I don’t want to know facts,” said Fred Rosen, former CEO of Ticketmaster, who pitched in a total of $4,100 and said his relationship with Ridley-Thomas extends over 30 years. “He’s a friend, and you stand by your friends when they have issues.”
Ridley-Thomas loaned the fund $1 million. According to The Times, the source of that money is unclear, but property records show he refinanced his home and rental property in 2022.
Read the full article here.
Emilie St. John is a freelance journalist for 2UrbanGirls.com and contributing writer for the Los Angeles Wave newspaper.
