Curren Price, member of the Los Angeles City Council

first appeared in court on Thursday morning

cost

that he cheated the city of thousands of dollars in health insurance benefits and voted on contracts in which he had a financial interest. Price, 72, sought to have his grand larceny by embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest settlement continue until Aug. 28, a request granted by LA County Superior Court Judge Kimberley Baker Guillemet. The veteran politician did not plead or speak to reporters gathered in the courtroom in downtown LA. LA County Dist. attentive George Gascn filed suit against Price last month.

The embezzlement allegations stem from allegations that he

received took in

nearly $34,000 in drugs

benefits to which he was not entitled should not have been received because he had listed his current wife, Del Richardson Price, as his wife

on city forms from 2013 to 2017, according to

the criminal report.

Prosecutors allege

Price

was then legally married to another woman. Price and Richardson Price were not legally married until 2018, court records show.

Richardson Price, who accompanied her husband to Thursday’s hearing, declined to speak to reporters ahead of the brief court hearing. In a written statement, Curren Price said he was grateful for the continuation. “As we said when the charges were filed, we believe that the charges brought by the prosecution are completely baseless and that the facts will bear this out,” Price said. “I have always behaved with integrity and professionalism both in and out of the public eye. The councilman remains free without bail, although LA County Deputy Dist. Atty. Casey Higgins asked Guillemet to place a few conditions on his release Thursday. Price will have to be formally booked into a police station and then released, and he must publicly declare any conflict of interest and abstain from any future council votes related to his wife or her former firm, Del Richardson & Associates, according to Higgins Guillemet agreed to If convicted on all charges, Price could face eight to 10 years in prison, depending on whether or not prosecutors are seeking consecutive or concurrent sentences, Higgins said after the hearing.

Price has not provided a detailed rebuttal to the allegations. When asked about his 2017 marriages, he said

That

he thought he was divorced from his previous wife

go through definitively

and that he was legally married to Richardson Price.

The number of conflicts of interest stems from allegations that Del Richardson & Associates received more

than

$150,000 between 2019 and 2021 from companies founded or co-owned by

property

developers

with projects before Price. In their criminal charges, prosecutors alleged

that Price cast votes

between 2019 and 2021

to support two affordable housing projects, one in South LA and the other in Westside, while his wife’s consulting firm was working for developers of those same projects. Neither project was in Price’s district.

The perjury charges are based on allegations that Price failed to disclose the earnings Richardson Price received

of those developers

on its financial disclosure forms.

At the time Price voted for the two projects, he was already under investigation. That reports The Times

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in April 2019 that Price had voted on

business decisions

involving at least 10 companies

WHO

were listed on his disclosure forms as income for his wife

consult

firm

Del Richardson & Associates

.

Months later, the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission opened an investigation into Price after he received a complaint accusing him of voting on projects that generated income for his wife in violation of conflict of interest laws. The complaint was filed by Susan Hunter, who at the time was a community organizer with the Coalition to Preserve LA, a group supported by

the

The Hollywood-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which opposes development projects.

Hunter also accused Price of putting false information about his wife’s income on his financial disclosure statements, according to FPPC paperwork obtained by The Times.

In June 2019, the FPPC sent a letter to Price and his wife saying they were investigating Hunter’s complaint. The agency said it would send a similar letter of notice to Hunter.

In an interview this week, Hunter said the district attorney’s office never contacted her.

Jay Wierenga, a spokesman for the FPPC,

said he cannot confirm whether there is a connection between the letter and the criminal charges, or whether his agency cooperated with prosecutors.

On Thursday, Higgins said the FPPC was

aware of the allegations in the case and had made discovery. He declined to comment further on any connection between a complaint filed with the FPPC and the DA’s case.

Price stopped attending council meetings after the charges were filed. He stepped down from chairmanship pro tempore, the No. 2 leadership position, and from all his commission assignments.

He has continued to represent his South LA

council

district, and recently met with residents affected by the failed LAPD

the

explosion of one

n illegal

fireworks cache inside

into a residential area

2021. Meanwhile, councilors have postponed a vote on whether to suspend him, delaying that decision to August 25 at the earliest.

Times staff writer Julia Wick contributed to this report.