Inglewood Mayor Dorn pleads guilty to conflict of interest, resigns

Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn pleaded guilty Monday to a misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charge and resigned his office. The plea came the day jury selection in his trial was to begin.

Updated 1:37 p.m.

Prosecutors accused Dorn of corruption when he voted to extend a low interest loan program to Inglewood elected officials, then took advantage of that program.

The three-term mayor paid back the half-million dollar loan, but he enjoyed interest rates far below the market rate.

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Resignation ends a long public career for Dorn, 72. He served in the United States Air Force, as an L.A. County deputy sheriff, an L.A. assistant city attorney and Superior Court judge. As a juvenile court judge in Inglewood, he drew praise and criticism for his tough handling of wayward kids.

In an L.A. Times profile several years ago, Dorn recounted how he arrived in Southern California from the cotton fields of Oklahoma with $1.50 in his pocket.

A judge sentenced him to two years’ probation, fined him a thousand dollars and barred him from public office in the conflict of interest case.

Prosecutors dropped other charges that could have put him in prison for more than four years.