LOS ANGELES (CNS) – City Councilman Curren Price — already facing multiple charges of grand theft and perjury for allegedly voting in favor of projects in which his wife had a financial interest — is due in L.A. criminal court again Thursday after being hit with two new public corruption charges.
Prosecutors on Tuesday filed the two new counts against the 74-year- old councilman from the Ninth District, which includes most of South Los Angeles and Exposition Park — a district Price has represented since 2013 after previously serving in the Assembly and state Senate.
He was previously charged in June 2023 with five felony counts of embezzlement of government funds, three felony counts of perjury and two felony counts of conflict of interest and pleaded not guilty.
Price — who has maintained his innocence — is expected to be arraigned on the new charges Thursday in downtown Los Angeles.
If convicted as charged, he would 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 Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Michael Schafler, Price’s attorney, said the case against the councilman is “weak” and won’t hold up to scrutiny.
“More than two years later, the DA’s amended complaint is nothing more than an attempt to pile on to a weak case,” Schafler said in a statement.
“They have gone back as much as six years, combing through thousands and thousands of votes, to find a couple more allegedly conflicted votes, hoping that the public will overlook the fact that there is no evidence whatsoever that Council member Price was aware of the alleged conflicts when he voted for the agenda items.”
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 Tuesday 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, LA Metro paid Del Richardson & Associates about $219,500. During that time, Price introduced and voted for a motion to award $30 million to Metro, 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.
“Embezzling public funds and awarding contracts for your own financial gain is the antithesis of public service,” L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement. “Our communities expect and deserve better from their public officials. … Self-dealing and pay-to-play politics will not be tolerated in Los Angeles County.”
Price is the latest Los Angeles city official to fall into legal or political turmoil.
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.
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