LOS ANGELES (CNS) – City Councilman Curren Price pleaded not guilty Thursday to a pair of newly filed public corruption charges, which were added to the 10 felony counts of grand theft, perjury and conflict of interest he was already facing for allegedly voting in favor of projects in which his wife had a financial interest.
The 74-year-old councilman from the Ninth District appeared in a downtown courtroom to answer to the new charges. He was scheduled to return to court Sept. 16, when a date will be set for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence for his case to go to trial.
Price’s attorney, Michael Schafler, issued a statement calling the addition of new charges “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 was initially 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. He pleaded not guilty.
Price — who has represented the South Los Angeles/Exposition Park district since 2013 after previously serving in the Assembly and state Senate — has maintained his innocence
If convicted as charged, Price 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.
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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