Inglewood Mayor Resigns After Guilty Plea
Dorn charged with accepting $500,000 loan from city-funded program
Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn stepped down from his post Sunday evening.
The three-term mayor pleaded guilty today to a misdemeanor charge of conflict of interest resulting from his acceptance of a large loan from a city-funded program, according to Los Angeles Times.
The plea came as prospective jurors were being questioned in Dorn’s trial on charges of accepting a $500,000 loan arranged through a city housing program.
As a result of the guilty plea, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli immediately sentenced the 74-year-old mayor to two years probation and ordered him to pay a $1,000 fine. Additionally, Dorn will be barred from holding public office for life, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The plea deal clears a case originally filed in June 2008, and also results in the dismissal of two other felony charges against Dorn involving misappropriation of public funds.
City News Service quotes Dorn attorney Albert Deblanc Jr. as entering the guilty plea because Dorn “…wanted to put closure on this because it affected his family and his ability to govern.”
Dorn, Inglewood’s long time mayor, was first elected in a landslide victory in 1997, ironically after serving 18 years as a Superior Court judge himself.
