Another Black Mayor Ousted: Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn Resigns

Posted by the Ghetto Intellectual 2/3/2010

Dig it!

 "There comes a time when even the innocent can be forced to take a plea," Dorn said. "And that's what happened to me." Mayor Roosevelt Dorn (this is a stunning statement when you consider that Dorn is a former judge)

Mayor of Inglewood, Roosevelt Dorn, resigns after 13 years over a dumb decision to take advantage of a loan program (the loans were originally intended to attract civil servants applicants, especially firemen and police officers.) that he himself authorized. Dorn, a former "get tough" judge, should have known better. He was a good mayor guilty of bad judgment.

Keep your head up Mayor Dorn. You did well. 

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Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn resigns

By Denise Nix Staff Writer
Posted: 01/25/2010 08:20:51 PM PST

Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn resigned from office just hours before pleading guilty Monday to a misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charge for a low-interest loan he received from the city.

Dorn, a former Juvenile Court judge who was first elected mayor nearly 13 years ago, maintained both his innocence and an upbeat attitude Monday. He said adverse pretrial rulings left him no choice but to plead guilty.

"I'm very confident with the fact that, if the evidence had been able to be brought in, I would have been acquitted," Dorn, 74, said in an interview.

"I'm convinced that, if convicted, it would be reversed," Dorn added. "But I don't want to sit in prison waiting for the case to be set aside by the Court of Appeals when I could plea, pay a $1,000 fine and walk away and retire like I did before I went to court."

In a letter penned over the weekend, Dorn relinquished the post he had held since 1997, effective at 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

Even though the conviction was not a felony, Dorn nevertheless is barred from ever holding public office again because it involved a conflict of interest.

His plea came just as jury selection was to begin in a downtown Los Angeles Superior Court courtroom. He was facing three felony counts of conflict of interest, use of an unauthorized loan and misappropriation of public funds.

If convicted at trial, he faced up to four years and eight months in prison.

After Dorn's plea, Judge George Lomeli sentenced him to two years probation and ordered the fine.


Read entire article @ The Daily Breeze 

tags: corruption, inglewood, politics, roosevelt dorn