a

former

Curren Price, longtime assistant to Los Angeles City Councilman

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in a claim filed against the city that she was fired after Price staffers accused her of being a snitch in the criminal case brought against the council member by LA County Dist. Atty. George Gascn.

Angie Reyes English, former senior deputy for Price, filed the claim on February 1. Such claims are typically filed before a formal lawsuit.

The four-page claim, which was reviewed by The Times, alleges that Reyes English faced harassment from Price and his team and was ultimately fired in January.

Angelina Valencia Dumarot

, a spokesperson for Price, denied the former employee’s allegations. Reyes English had even been the subject of complaints from Price’s staff, Valencia-Dumarot said.

We deny these baseless allegations and have worked closely with them [the city’s Personnel Department] on this issue for months,” Valencia-Dumarot said in a statement. “Last year, several district office employees filed separate formal complaints. [with the Personnel Department] citing Angie Reyes English’s intimidating and threatening behavior, which left some anxious and depressed.

Attorney Greg Smith, who represents Reyes English, said his client is

subconscious

of any complaints, and has never been informed of any complaints, formal or informal, against her.

In Hawthorne, Reyes English is mayor pro tem and a member of the city council, according to that city’s website. She declined an interview request.

According to her complaint, she worked for Price for seventeen years. Price

a democrat,

previously serving in the state Senate and Assembly.

Ivor Pine, a spokesman for Los Angeles City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto declined to comment on the claim.

Gascn charged Price in June 2023 with 10 counts of embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest. The charges relate to medical benefits his wife, Del Richardson Price, received from the city, and votes the councilman cast that allegedly benefited his wife’s business.

Price has strongly denied the allegations.

Reyes English’s claim alleges that nearly two weeks after the district attorney’s office filed its case against Price, the council member’s right-hand man, Jose Ugarte, a deputy chief of staff, called Reyes English and told her that he and other Price

confidants

believed she was a whistleblower” and had disclosed information to “government agencies.”

The next day, Reye’s English told her supervisors and human resources representatives that she had been intimidated by those who believed she was the traitor, according to her claim.

According to her claim, Price and others retaliated against Reye’s English. Beginning July 1, 2023, she was placed on involuntary medical leave for approximately three months.

When she returned to work, she said, additional measures were taken to intimidate, harass and harm her. She was fired on January 9, according to the claim.

The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on her claim.

Price is due back in court in early March. Last month, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge denied a request by Price’s defense team to dismiss the case against him, on the grounds that the prosecution had failed to prove that Price’s votes were motivated by the his wife’s business dealings.

Price’s attorney, Michael Schafler, had also argued that prosecutors improperly brought embezzlement charges when Price’s alleged conduct regarding his wife’s health insurance did not meet the definition of the crime under California law.

Times writer James Queally contributed to this report.