Following a multi-day hearing, Los Angeles City Councilman Curren Price was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on a series of public corruption charges.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Shelly Torrealba rejected a defense motion to dismiss the entire case, saying she found “sufficient cause” for the case against Price to proceed to trial.
The Ninth District councilman 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.
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.
He remains free on his own recognizance while awaiting arraignment March 13 at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse.
Price’s attorney, Michael Schafler, told reporters outside court after the hearing that he believed the prosecution’s case has “a lot of gaps, a lot of holes,” and said the defense believes that “Mr. Price will be vindicated and exonerated.”
In a statement released shortly after the hearing, Price’s representative said, “The testimony presented during the hearing, including from key witnesses, clearly shows that Councilman Price did not act with any intent to do wrong and that the case rests on speculation rather than facts.”
“While the court’s ruling is disappointing, the council member remains fully committed to fighting these charges, clearing his name, and is confident the truth will ultimately prevail,” Angelina Valencia-Dumarot, executive director of communications for Price, said in the statement.
In his own statement, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman called the judge’s ruling “a significant step toward holding L.A. Councilmember Curren Price accountable for years of alleged corruption.”
“… The rules are clear: elected officials cannot enrich themselves at the expense of their constituents, cannot lie on disclosure forms, and cannot vote on matters in which they have a conflict of interest. We proved during the preliminary hearing that Councilmember Price engaged in these repeated acts of deception, fraud and conflict of interest for years, overcoming his baseless arguments to blame others, including his staff and his lawyers, instead of owning responsibility for his actions,” Hochman added.
Price, now 75, pleaded not guilty to the initial 10 charges in December 2023, with two more charges being filed against him last year.
The councilman is accused of failing to list money that a company solely owned by his current wife, Delbra Pettice Richardson, received as a sub-contractor from some developers — along with the Housing Authority for the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority — which had pending matters before the City Council and failing to recuse himself from voting in favor of those projects. He allegedly failed to disclose information about the payments to Del Richardson & Associates on a form filed with the California Fair Political Practices Commission.
Price is also accused of embezzling nearly $33,800 in city funds from 2013 to 2017 to pay for medical benefits for Richardson, whom he allegedly falsely claimed was his wife, while still legally married to Lynn Suzette Price.
Price’s attorney had asked the judge to dismiss all of the charges, arguing that “it’s our view that the evidence is insufficient.”
Addressing the conflict-of-interest charges, Schafler acknowledged that the prosecution had established that “many mistakes were made.” But he said Price had a process in place in his office to determine potential conflicts of interest and was not notified unless his staff alerted him.
Price’s lawyer said there was “no evidence that Mr. Price acted with any wrongful intent,” arguing that the charges involved a “very isolated” section of Price’s voting, telling the judge that the councilman’s vote involving those issues were not a deciding factor and that he had “nothing to gain.”
Deputy District Attorney Casey Higgins countered that Price had blamed “everyone” but himself.
The prosecutor told the judge that the councilman was “trying to create this wall around himself.”
He argued that two witnesses called during the hearing were “trying to jump in front of the bus” for Price, for whom they had worked.
The judge agreed with the prosecutor’s assessment of those witnesses, saying that it appeared that there was “a level of bias in favor of the defendant” that “came through very clearly.”
Price could face up to 11 years and four months in custody if convicted, 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.
He is the latest Los Angeles city official to fall into legal or political turmoil.
Former council members Jose Huizar and Mitch Englander 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 making racist remarks in a conversation with two other council members and a county labor official, discussing the council’s redistricting process.