Curren Price
Introduction
Curren De Mille Price Jr. is the long-serving Los Angeles city councilman representing the city’s 9th District since 2013, who in January 2026 was ordered to stand trial on all 12 felony public corruption charges filed against him — embezzlement of government funds, conflict of interest, and perjury — after a six-day preliminary hearing. District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman called the ruling “a significant step toward holding L.A. Councilmember Curren Price accountable for years of alleged corruption.”
Background Information
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 — the rule at the center of the case against him.
Price 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, prosecutors filed an amended complaint alleging two additional felony counts of conflict of interest after the District Attorney’s 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.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged, not convicted. Price has been held to answer for trial on all counts but remains presumed innocent; the charges are allegations and no trial verdict has been reached.
On January 28, 2026, after a six-day preliminary hearing, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Shelly Torrealba held Price to answer on all 12 public corruption charges, ruling that the case against the sitting councilmember will proceed to trial.
Hochman said: “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.” He added: “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.”
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.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The district attorney’s public framing of the ruling — that prosecutors had “proved” the pattern of deception at the preliminary hearing — marked the case as one of the most serious ongoing corruption prosecutions of a sitting Los Angeles elected official. Price’s 9th District seat, held since 2013, remained his through the proceedings, with the trial looming over the remainder of his term.
The allegation that his wife received more than $800,000 from two agencies whose contracts he voted on — HACLA and LA Metro — expanded the case from the original 2023 charging theory into a broader pattern of alleged conflict-of-interest conduct spanning years of council decisions.
Current Status
Arraignment on the information was set for March 13, 2026, in Department 106 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center. The case remains pending before the Los Angeles County Superior Court, with Price presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Impact on Their Career/Life
A decade-plus council career now hangs on the trial: the twelve counts — embezzlement, conflict of interest, and perjury — carry a combined maximum of more than 11 years in custody, and the judge’s ruling means the evidence torches through a full preliminary hearing has been found sufficient for trial on every count. For the 9th District, the case means representation by a councilmember whose votes on housing and transit agency contracts are themselves evidence in a pending felony prosecution.
Sources
- Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office: “Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price to Face Trial in Felony Public Corruption Case” source