Lawyers for longtime Los Angeles politician Mark Ridley-Thomas, who was convicted of bribery, fraud and conspiracy, told a federal judge Monday to overturn the jury’s guilty verdict and order a new trial or He requested that the client be completely acquitted.

Defense attorneys argued that prosecutorial misconduct, insufficient evidence, and inaccurate and “inappropriate testimony” by the lead FBI agent in the case warranted the jury’s verdict be overturned.

“This is a miscarriage of justice,” defense attorney Daralin Dury told U.S. District Judge Dale Fisher, eliciting murmurs of agreement from an audience of more than 100 people packed into the seventh-floor courtroom. Also in the crowd were lobbyists, former staff members, Ridley Thomas’ wife, and a public relations team assisting him in his defense.

Fisher did not rule on either of the two allegations filed by Ridley-Thomas’ attorneys. One was for a retrial and the other was for acquittal. “We will make a decision as soon as possible,” the judge said at the end of the hour-long hearing.

Jurors accused a former Los Angeles City Council member of four counts related to transferring $100,000 from campaign funds to the University of Southern California, knowing the university would use the money to run nonprofits. of good faith service mail fraud and one count of good faith service mail fraud. by his son.

He has also been convicted of bribery and conspiracy, respectively, and the $100,000 donation was made by the South while Ridley Thomas, 68, voted in favor of the motion and moral favoritism. He claims he was part of a broader bribery scheme to extract special benefits from the University of California for his son. Health contract required by the university.

His co-defendant, Marilyn Flynn, pleaded guilty to bribery last year and is expected to be sentenced this summer.

Ridley-Thomas is also expected to be sentenced this summer, barring the outcome of a retrial and acquittal by his legal team.

Attorney Gallia Z. Amram summarized the series of legal flaws alleged in the trial, first arguing that there was scant evidence that Ridley Thomas committed the “official act” required for a bona fide service fraud charge. bottom.

Prosecutors allege that Ridley Thomas “voted” a contract extension for a remote mental health treatment program from Los Angeles County to the University of Southern California, but Amram said there was no evidence of an actual vote. This item was approved by the Supervisory Board in the “Consent Calendar”. In this calendar, some incontrovertible items are grouped together and passed as a batch.

“FBI agents had limited information about what the consent calendar meant,” Amram said. She said the lack of evidence for this was insufficient to show “official conduct.”

“They didn’t show him raising his hand,” Amram said. “They didn’t show that he said ‘yes’.”

Amram said prosecutors had argued for omission and that Ridley-Thomas should have raised his hand instead of holding the consent vote. She said the bona fide service fraud conviction should be overturned because “there is no evidence that omission can be considered official conduct.”

But assistant US Athi. Lindsay Greer-Dotson rejected the notion that the record of the 2018 Oversight Board meeting did not show “official conduct”, saying that voting at the public meeting represented “the most obvious and most unfavorable official conduct”. ” claimed to be.

“Attorneys may argue that a vote is not a vote,” Dotson said. Separately, she said the evidence showed that “there was an agreement to commit official conduct”, which justified upholding the guilty verdict.

Dotson said his arguments in the new trial were “infallible,” adding that “99%” of what the defense argued was erroneous and was never challenged during the trial. rice field.

“These are confiscated errors,” says Dotson.