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January 28, 2026: Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price to Face Trial in Felony Public Corruption Case
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After a six-day preliminary hearing, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge held Price to answer on all 12 public corruption charges
LOS ANGELES — The felony public corruption case against sitting Los Angeles Councilmember Curren Price will proceed to trial, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled today.
“This is a significant step toward holding L.A. Councilmember Curren Price accountable for years of alleged corruption,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said. “Our Public Integrity Division has been prepared to go to trial since the charges were originally filed. 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.”
Price has been the city’s 9th District councilmember since 2013. Like all other councilmembers, he is prohibited from having a financial interest associated with any project that comes before the City Council.
Curren De Mille Price Jr. (dob 12/16/50) was charged in 2023 with five felony counts of embezzlement of government funds, two felony counts of conflict of interest and three felony counts of perjury. In August 2025, an amended complaint was filed alleging two additional felony counts of conflict of interest after the Office uncovered evidence that the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles and LA Metro allegedly paid Price’s wife more than $800,000 at the same time Price voted to award the agencies multimillion-dollar contracts.
Today, Price was held to answer by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Shelly Torrealba on all 12 charges.
Arraignment on the Information is set for March 13 in Department 106 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
Price allegedly voted on projects where his current wife, Delbra Pettice Richardson, was subcontracted by a developer or directly contracted by the City. Richardson’s company allegedly received payments totaling more than $950,000 between 2019 and 2021 from developers, the Housing Authority and LA Metro before Price voted to approve projects. While Richardson was employed by these entities, Price brought and voted in favor of a motion to award $30 million to LA Metro and voted to support a $35 million federal grant and a $252 million state grant application for the Housing Authority. Price’s staff had flagged the conflicts prior to the votes.
The perjury charges stem from Price failing to disclose those conflicts on the California Fair Political Practices Commission Form 700.
Price is also accused of embezzling approximately $33,800 in city funds from 2013 to 2017 to pay for medical benefits for Richardson, whom he falsely claimed was his wife, while still legally married to Lynn Suzette Price.
The amended complaint further alleged that Price took advantage of his position in city government to award city lease agreements and over $2 million in federal COVID-19 grants to the nonprofit Home at Last, which was a paying tenant of Urban Healthcare Project, where Price served as CEO at the time of the votes. These funds were intended for homelessness efforts.
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Case BA515782 is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Casey Higgins of the Public Integrity Division and remains under investigation by the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation.
If convicted as charged, Price faces a maximum sentence of 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.
The charges filed in this case are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
