Los Angeles County prosecutors plan to file additional corruption charges against City Councilman Curren Price this week, who has faced multiple counts of theft and perjury because of the alleged voting for his wife with a financial interest.
According to three people with knowledge of the situation, the charges are expected to be publicly charged at a pretrial hearing in downtown Los Angeles, who demand anonymity to speak frankly about ongoing criminal cases.
In June 2023, Price was charged with 10 counts of corruption, perjury and conflict of interest. Price’s wife – founder of consulting firm Del Richardson & Associates, Del Richardson, received “a total of more than $150,000 in payments from developers between 2019 and 2021, prosecutors said [Price] Vote to approve the project. ”
The allegations of perjury stem from the claim that the price did not include his wife’s income on the disclosure table. Prosecutors also charged the theft of embezzlement for placing Richardson in his city-issued health care program between 2013 and 2017 to get the city out of tens of thousands of dollars before legally getting married.
Price’s attorney Michael Schafler said the new charges were “less than cases where they tried to give a weak one.”
“They have returned to six years, combing through thousands of votes to find some votes that allegedly conflict with the votes, hoping that the public can ignore the fact that there is no evidence that Congressman Consemement Price is aware of the alleged conflict when he votes for those agendas.”
The initial criminal lawsuit came about four years after an investigation found prices to be repeatedly voted, affecting housing developers and other companies listed as clients of their wife’s consulting firms.
According to two sources, the new allegations are related to similar conduct related to voting for price votes. One of the sources said the vote was related to the contracts between the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Bureau and the Urban Housing Administration.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said the press release will be released later Tuesday.
Price’s legal team, in an October 2023 motion, aimed to dismiss the charges, arguing that prosecutors’ failure to pay Richardson had any impact on the vote of lawmakers. Many of the votes described in the criminal complaints were also approved by the Council overwhelmingly, meaning that prices did not allow any decisions that could benefit financially from Richardson.
Schaffler also believes that the allegation of embezzlement is invalid because the price cannot control the funds used to pay Richardson Healthcare, an element of criminality required by California law. Schafler wrote in 2023 that Price’s actions may meet the definition of theft, but the statute of limitations for the offence has long expired.
The judge rejected Schaffler’s motion. Preliminary hearings are expected to face later this year.
Price, first elected in 2013, must leave the office by the end of 2026 due to term limits. Several candidates have launched campaigns to replace him in the area from downtown Los Angeles Convention Center to South La Los Angeles South 95th Street
Times worker David Zahniser contributed to the report.
