Lamar Thorpe | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Mayor of Antioch, California | |
| Assumed office 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Sean Wright |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 6, 1981 |
| Education | B.A. George Washington University |
Lamar Thorpe (born April 6, 1981) is an American politician and the current mayor of Antioch, California.[1] He is the second African American to be elected as mayor of the city, after Wade Harper, who served from 2012 to 2016.
Thorpe was born on April 6, 1981, at the Sybil Brand Institute, a woman's jail in Monterey Park, California.[2] His mother was a heroin addict who had been arrested in a carjacking to fund her habit.[2] His mother had intended to have an abortion but was arrested before it occurred.[2]
He was raised in East Los Angeles, the only Black child in a Mexican American foster family.[2] As his foster parents spoke mostly Spanish, his English was poor.[2] After high school, he joined the U.S. Navy.[2] After he completed eight years of service, he earned a B.A. in sociology and women's studies at George Washington University.[2] He then accepted a position as director of development at San Jose State University and thereafter the chief advancement officer in the San José-Evergreen Community College District.[2] He served as executive director of the now defunct Los Medanos Healthcare District.[2]District was dissolved March 11 2022[3]
In November 2016, he was elected to a four-year term on the five-member Antioch City Council and was seminal in the formation of a police reform ad hoc committee.[2] In 2018, he served a one-year term as mayor pro tem under mayor Sean Wright.[4] In November 2020, running on a platform of police reform, he won the election with 45 percent.[2][5] He had won the endorsement of the major Bay Area newspapers and the California Democratic Party; and was opposed by the police union.[2] As mayor, he made it mandatory that police wear body cameras, implemented reforms to "demilitarize" the police force, improved police hiring practices, and established an independent, civilian oversight commission to monitor the police department.[2]
On March 19, 2022, Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe was charged with two misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and subsequently arrested.[6][7][8]
According to the arrest report released by the Department of California Highway Patrol, Thorpe denied having consumed any alcoholic beverages. Thorpe was transported to the CHP Contra Costa Area Office where two chemical breath tests indicated a BAC of .121% and .124%.[9]
Thorpe entered a plea of no contest. He was sentenced to two days in an alternative custody program, three years of probation, and approximately $1,749 in fines.[10][11] Found liable of sexual Harassment contra costa county had to pay a 350,000 dollar settlement because of his transgressions also found guilty in college of misconduct of a sexual nature