Curren Price
Wave Wire Services
LOS ANGELES — A judge has set a Nov. 3 court date for a hearing on whether there is sufficient evidence to require Los Angeles City Councilman Curren Price to stand trial in an alleged public corruption case.
The 74-year-old councilman from the Ninth District — who appeared in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Sept. 16 — is charged with five counts of grand theft by embezzlement of public funds, four counts of conflict of interest and three counts of perjury by declaration.
The hearing in November is expected to last several days.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sean D. Coen rejected a challenge from the defense contesting the legal sufficiency of the complaint — a move that could have resulted in the dismissal of the case — against Price, who was initially charged in June 2023 with 10 felony counts.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office subsequently added two new charges in August against the city councilman.
In a statement shortly after the judge’s decision, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said, “Public officials will not violate the public trust on my watch. The District Attorney’s Office, by law, is mandated to serve as a watchdog against public corruption.
“Politicians are entrusted with immense power and control over vast sums of money and are accordingly bound to act in the interests of the public, not their pocketbook,” Hochman added. “Our Public Integrity Division will continue to hold politicians accountable. We look forward to moving forward with the criminal justice process in this case.”
Shortly after the new charges were added, Price’s attorney, Michael Schafler, said in a statement that the new charges were “nothing more than an attempt to pile on to a weak case.”
“They have gone back as far as six years, combing through thousands and thousands of votes, to find a couple more allegedly conflicted votes,” Schafler said. “The evidence will show that Council member Price had no knowledge of any alleged conflicts at the time he cast those votes. The fact is that every one of those votes was passed unanimously and by consent.”
“The councilman will continue to fight these charges until his name is cleared and his innocence is proven,” Schafler added.
Price — who has represented the Ninth District since 2013 after previously serving in the Assembly and state Senate — has maintained his innocence.
If convicted as charged, Price could face up to 11 years and four months in custody, including up to nine years and four months in state prison and up to two years in county jail, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The felony counts allege that Del Richardson & Associates, a company owned solely by Price’s wife, Delbra Pettice Richardson, received payments totaling more than $150,000 between 2019 and 2021 from developers before he voted to approve projects.
Price is also accused of embezzling nearly $33,800 in city funds from 2013-2017 to pay for medical benefits for Richardson, who he falsely claimed was his wife while still legally married to Lynn Suzette Price, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Price pleaded not guilty to the initial 10 charges in December 2023 and was released on his own recognizance.
Prosecutors said this week that subpoenas in the case yielded additional evidence of public corruption, and they filed an amended complaint alleging two additional counts of conflict of interest. The complaint includes an appendix of 39 exhibits of alleged evidence of the payments and Price’s voting history, prosecutors said.
Between Oct. 22, 2019, and June 30, 2020, the Housing Authority of the city of Los Angeles allegedly paid Del Richardson & Associates nearly $609,600. During that time, Price voted to support a $35 million federal grant and a state grant application for $252 million for the agency, court papers show.
Between Oct. 27, 2020, and Oct. 20, 2021, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority paid Del Richardson & Associates about $219,500. During that time, Price introduced and voted for a motion to award $30 million to the MTA, according to prosecutors.
In both cases, Price’s staff had flagged the potential conflict of interest prior to the votes, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also contend that Price took advantage of his position to award city lease agreements and more than $2 million in federal COVID-19 grants to the nonprofit Home at Last, which was a tenant of the Urban Healthcare Project, for which Price served as CEO.
Price is the latest Los Angeles city official to fall into legal or political probhlems.
Former council members Jose Huizar and Mitch Englander have both pleaded guilty to federal charges in recent years, while former Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas was convicted in 2023 of federal charges for trading votes during his time on the county Board of Supervisors in exchange for benefits provided by USC to his son.
Former City Council President Nury Martinez resigned in 2022 after being caught on tape in a racially charged conversation with two other council members and a county labor official, discussing the council’s redistricting process.
