In yet another infuriating case of Democratic politician corruption, a Democratic city council member in Los Angeles will stand trial in court on felony public corruption charges after a state-level judge ruled that the prosecutors have presented sufficient evidence to push forward with the prosecution of the politician.
For reference, the Democrat involved is infamously woke Los Angeles Councilmember Curren Price, who is currently representing the 9th District of Los Angeles. It was Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Shelly Torrealba who rued, as announced on Wednesday, January 28, that Curren will have to stand trial on the slew of charges against him.
As background, the office of Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman is charging Price with 12 felony counts, including embezzlement of government funds, conflict of interest and perjury. Judge Torrealba’s ruling requiring Price to stand trial on all charges came after a six-day preliminary hearing.
Those charges include a wide variety of alleged improper conduct, including everything from mere failure to disclose conflicts that he was required by state law to disclose to embezzling tens of thousands of dollars of funding and improperly pushing city funding to his wife by voting for funding that financially benefited her.
Further, prosecutors allege the embezzlement went back over a decade, with the city councilman allegedly swiping over $30,000 from the city between 2013 and 2017. Further, during the Covid-19 pandemic, he allegedly awarded millions of dollars in grants and city support to a non-profit to which he was connected.
Yet further, price is accused of having pushed nearly a million dollars to his wife through pushing forward contracts with his wife, who received a whopping $800,000 from both the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles and LA Metro. All in all, he faces nearly eleven and a half years in prison over the alleged corruption.
In any case, DA Hochman, commenting on the judge’s ruling and the upcoming trial, alleged that Price has engaged in fraud foryears and this is an important first step on the path to accountability, saying, “This is a significant step toward holding L.A. Councilmember Curren Price accountable for years of alleged corruption.”
"*" indicates required fields
Continuing, Hochman noted that the DA’s office has been preparing for a real trial, rather than a plea deal or handling of things behind closed doors, since the machinery of bringing charges against Price started, saying, “Our Public Integrity Division has been prepared to go to trial since the charges were originally filed.”
Further, Hochman noted that such blatant and infuriating corruption as Price engaged in cannot be tolerated and won’t be tolerated, saying, “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.”
On the other side, Price’s representative alleged that the testimony brought against Price by the DA’s office failed to show that Price acted “with any intent to do wrong,” going on to argue that the case “rests on speculation rather than facts.”
Watch Price get confronted for his alleged crimes here:
Featured image credit: Luke Harold, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons