Gentle reader,
If Los Angeles was a normal city, we might have slept in.
But this place is anything but normal. Despite rampant, blatant public corruption, the kind of dirt that is fertile ground for Pulitzer Prizes, our anemic local media barely covers it.
So if we wanted to know what was happening with the case against sitting councilman Curren Price for embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest, we’d have to go to court and see it unfold in real time. So we did—and came away with a scoop.
The hearing wasn’t a long one, but it was red hot, as Deputy D.A. Casey Higgins, appearing for the first time before Superior Court Judge Kerry L. White, expressed serious concerns about the councilman and his close associates interfering with the criminal investigation.
He first cited Los Angeles Times reporting about council aide Angie Reyes English’s claim that “nearly two weeks after the district attorney's office filed its case against Price, the councilman’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.’ She says she was intimidated and later fired.
Then Higgins brought up someone who wasn’t in the news: Del Richardson, Curren Price’s (formerly) bigamous wife whose spousal medical insurance coverage figures in his embezzlement charges. Richardson, through her “cash for keys” tenant displacement business, had hired an attorney for a witness! That witness was now refusing to communicate with the D.A.’s investigators!
And if that wasn’t wild enough, a representative of the City Attorney’s office then told the judge that they couldn’t provide all the documents the prosecution sought due to “attorney-client privilege”—as if the indicted councilman was their client, and not the citizens who elected Hydee Feldstein Soto in November 2022.
The judge appeared skeptical, and said he’d see everyone back before his bench on March 25 for a hearing about the documents.
Despite the absence of media in the courtroom, intimidation, retaliation and potential witness tampering by an elected official, his staff and his family seems newsworthy to us. And the allegations raise serious questions about how, although indicted and removed from his committees, Curren Price continues to serve as a voting member of City Council.
We left the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Courthouse and called an L.A. Times reporter to tell them what they’d missed. Then walked past the Stanley Mosk Superior Courthouse and stopped in abject horror.
One of our favorite landmarks, the time capsule cornerstone ringed with a decorative frieze salvaged from the old Red Sandstone Courthouse was nearly unrecognizable, coated in gooey brown latex paint.
And because it hurts a little less when you share, we shot the video at the top of this post so you, too, can see the mess they’ve made of something beautiful and rare.
But some things are still wonderful in Los Angeles, like last week’s Vedanta Square sign dedication. The Vedanta Society has posted video of the moving ceremony, which we appreciate, because ours mysteriously didn’t upload. This includes Rev. Dylan Littlefield’s benediction and a few words from Richard around 25 minutes in.
We’re off for a couple of weeks, but available for private tour bookings. Tours are now listed through July, including the brand new Film Noir / Real Noir on June 29 and a repeat of the very popular Know Your Downtown L.A. on July 27. Join us, do!
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
Psst… If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of this newsletter, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking and bus tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS
• SOLD OUT Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop (Sat. 3/16) • The Run: Gay Downtown History (Sat. 3/23) • Franklin Village Old Hollywood (Sat. 3/30) • John Fante’s Downtown Los Angeles Birthday (Sat. 4/6) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown (Sat. 4/13) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher Cases (Sat. 4/20) • Downtown Los Angeles is for Book Lovers (Sat. 4/27) • Alvarado Terrace & South Bonnie Brae Tract (Sat. 5/4) • Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (Sat. 5/11) • Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (Sat. 5/18) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sat. 5/25) • POP – Preserving Our Past (Sat. 6/1) • Westlake Park (Sat. 6/8) • Highland Park Arroyo (Sat. 6/15) • Film Noir / Real Noir (Sat. 6/29) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 7/13) • Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop (7/27)
CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS
The next Marilyn Monroe house landmarking hearing, at the powerful Planning and Land Use Management Committee, will be held on Tuesday, March 5 around 2pm. Citizens who wish to make spoken public comment must be physically present in City Hall’s John Ferraro Council Chamber Room 340, but written comments can be submitted to the case file by clicking NEW at this link.
Edmon J. Rodman's MegilLA reports on The Future of Jewish Buildings and threats to the B'nai B'rith Lodge from the L.A. City Attorney's secret deal with Catholic Charities and the fate of American Jewish University's vast library as Milken School moves in.
FOX 11 picked up our friend Lupe Breard's questionable eviction from her Victorian home of 60 years and the L.A. Tenants Union support rally. NELA Homes: be an ethical landlord, don't displace LA seniors. To help Lupe, click here.
Cheers to Supervisor Kathryn Barger for moving to prepare a historic resource survey for Acton, the old town just off the 14 after Agua Dulce.
Here's the Consumer Watchdog / L.A. Times application seeking to unseal FBI search warrants about then City Attorney/Congressional candidate Mike Feuer's collusion with the sham DWP lawsuit and aiding and abetting extortion. Did the Government "pull its punches?"
Empty Los Angeles calls out the gorgeous Spanish duplex on Beverly Drive that was subject of City Planning scamming in 2021 and is about to be demolished. Mitch O'Farrell deputy Gary Benjamin/Alchemy consulted. Designer J.J. Rees wept and so does all L.A.
The Dutch love funky replicas of Los Angeles landmarks. You can visit Ed Kienholz' The Beanery at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and soon Sayre Gomez' wee Peabody-Werden House will live at Voorlinden Museum near The Hague!
LA is rife with massive TOC buildings that omit parking for expensive units and fancy amenities. Sen. Anthony Portantino's revised #SB834 would bar tenants from getting street parking permits. It’s a smart idea from Friends of Historic Miracle Mile.
For Richard's big birthday bus adventure in 2019, we visited the marvelously mod William Pereira Hunt Library in Fullerton to learn about efforts to return the privatized space to public service. It's happening!
Do you love the Griffith Park Pony Rides and think it's messed up the city kicked them out over Christmas based on false animal cruelty allegations? Then please fill in the survey and select "PONY RIDES" as what you want to see there.
Mike Callahan's A History of Zoning in L.A. wraps up with City Hall's current developer concierge service, and tough luck for citizens who care for their town. Did the hobbling of Neighborhood Council power lead to Jose Huizar's piles of casino chips?
D.A. alleges witness tampering by indicted councilman Curren Price's wife, courthouse cornerstone wrecked