LOS ANGELES (KNX) — A group of residents of Los Angeles City Council District 10, along with assorted local faith leaders, staged a protest outside City Hall on Saturday calling for the reinstatement of suspended Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas.
Ridley-Thomas was suspended from the council following his federal indictment on corruption charges last year.
The group of about 20 protesters held a large sign reading “You stole our vote!” outside a parking garage on the Main Street side of City Hall. They also chanted “You stole our vote” as people drove into the structure.
The Rev. K. W. Tulloss, president of Baptist Ministers’ Conference L.A., told CIty News Service the group was protesting to reinstate Ridley-Thomas and express opposition to “behind the scenes” political machinations.
“We’re demanding due process,” he said. “We’re demanding a seat at the table to really discuss many issues of transparency, civil rights being violated.”
“We want Mark Ridley-Thomas to be reinstated,” he added. “He is who the people [have] placed in office.”
The City Council unanimously voted to appoint former District 10 Councilmember and California State Assemblymember Herb Wesson to temporarily represent the district. Wesson would keep the seat until Dec. 31, or until Ridley-Thomas is acquitted or federal charges are dropped.
Two days later, an L.A. County Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking Wesson from taking the seat until a March 17 preliminary hearing on the matter. The order was handed down as part of a lawsuit filed by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern California, of which Ridley-Thomas was executive director from 1981 to 1991.
Since Ridley-Thomas' suspension, District 10 has been overseen by caretaker Councilmember Karly Katona, who does not have any voting authority.
The trial for Ridley-Thomas and a former dean of the University of Southern California School of Social Work, Marilyn Flynn, has been tentatively set for Aug. 9. The defendants were charged in a 20-count indictment alleging a quid pro quo arrangement in which Ridley-Thomas — then a member of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors — agreed to push county funding to the school in return for admitting his son, Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, into graduate school with a full-tuition scholarship and a paid professorship.
Both defendants have denied any wrongdoing.
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