Judge prevents Wesson from acting as LA City Council replacement

A Superior Court judge Tuesday again blocked Herb Wesson from acting as a temporary replacement for suspended Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, adding more confusion to the representation of the 10th District.

The ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mary Strobel prevents Wesson from performing any council functions. The decision effectively blocks him from representing the district, although it did not formally remove him from the post.

The ruling marked the second time Strobel has issued a restraining order against Wesson’s service on the council. On Feb. 24, Strobel sided with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern California’s challenge to Wesson’s appointment, issuing a temporary restraining order that blocked him from serving.

But she later vacated the order and declined to issue a preliminary injunction, saying that procedurally, the SCLC needed to obtain permission from the state Attorney General’s Office to proceed with its legal challenge.

As a result, Wesson began serving on the council in mid-March. Last month, however, the Attorney General’s Office cleared the way for the SCLC to proceed with its challenge, opining that there were legitimate questions about whether Wesson’s appointment was legal.

The SCLC contends that Wesson is “termed out” since he already represented the 10th District from 2005 through 2020, serving as council president from 2012 to 2020. The group also argued that there was no public input in the process of choosing Wesson to temporarily fill the council seat.

With the AG’s opinion in hand, SCLC attorneys filed papers Monday and went to court Tuesday seeking a new restraining order, which Strobel granted, blocking Wesson from performing any council duties.

She set a hearing on a possible preliminary injunction for Aug. 16, so Wesson will be unable to perform any council functions until at least that date.

“Today is a great day for rule of law, transparency and democracy,” Pastor Willian D. Smart of SCLC said in a statement. “Decisions made behind closed doors and actions that run counter to the voting public must be met with strong action. Today’s decision lays the foundation for a trial where the merits of our case will be heard and hopefully the will of the voters will be upheld.”

Attorneys for the city argued against the restraining order, saying in part that there was no urgency for such a ruling — as noted by the SCLC’s decision to wait roughly a month after the attorney general’s ruling to even seek an injunction. City attorneys also claimed that the restraining order would do nothing to address the SCLC’s primary allegation that the City Council had no authority to suspend Ridley-Thomas.

Ridley-Thomas was suspended from the council last October, following his federal indictment on corruption charges.

Ridley-Thomas and former dean of the USC School of Social Work Marilyn Flynn are charged in a 20-count indictment alleging a secret deal in which Ridley-Thomas — when he was a member of the county Board of Supervisors — agreed to steer county money to the university in return for admitting his son Sebastian Ridley-Thomas into graduate school with a full-tuition scholarship and a paid professorship.

Flynn allegedly arranged to funnel a $100,000 donation from Ridley- Thomas’ campaign funds through the university to a nonprofit to be operated by his son, a former member of the state Assembly. The donation prompted an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles that remains open, prosecutors said.

In exchange, the indictment contends, Ridley-Thomas supported county contracts involving the School of Social Work, including lucrative deals to provide services to the county Department of Children and Family Services and Probation Department, as well as an amendment to a contract with the Department of Mental Health that would bring the school millions of dollars in new revenue.

Both defendants have strongly denied any wrongdoing and promised that evidence will clear their names.

The motion to appoint Wesson as a temporary replacement was unanimously approved by the council on Feb. 22. According to the appointment, Wesson is supposed to hold the position through Dec. 31 unless Ridley-Thomas is acquitted or the charges against him are dropped.

The City Council is in the midst of its summer recess.

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