L.A. City Councilman Curren Price faces questions over two marriages
A Los Angeles City Council member running for reelection is facing questions about whether his divorce ever became final before he remarried.
South L.A. Councilman Curren Price, 66, is married to entrepreneur Del Richardson, according to his campaign spokesman.
More than three decades ago, Price married Lynn Suzette Green in Annandale, Va. He sought a divorce in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2006 and refiled the action in 2011.
But the court records do not indicate that the divorce was ever granted. The case remains open, according to court records and a court spokeswoman.
Price and his legal team are trying to locate records that would prove the divorce was finalized.
“Mr. Price has been operating on the belief that his divorce is full and final,” said his campaign spokesman, Josh Pulliam. “Based on the questions raised in the past few days, he immediately requested all of the files and records regarding the divorce so we can get this resolved.”
Price did not respond when asked if he pursued a divorce from Lynn Suzette Price somewhere other than L.A. County.
Albert Robles, who represented Price in the divorce, insisted it was final.
“Curren Price is divorced, end of story,” Robles said in a statement. “I was Curren Price’s attorney; my office filed the paperwork. As far as Curren Price is concerned, his divorce was settled years ago and that’s what was communicated to Mr. Price at the time.”
Questions about Price’s divorce — first reported by the news site CityWatch — come as the South L.A. politician seeks reelection in District 9, where he faces two challengers in Tuesday’s election.
Bigamy is rarely prosecuted in California. Additionally, a judge will consider whether an individual had a “reasonable, good faith” reason to believe he or she was single or whether there was a court error.
Virginia Department of Health records show that Price, then 30, and 25-year-old Green were married on Aug. 1, 1981.
Price filed for divorce in Los Angeles County Superior Court in 2006, court records show. His attorney later filed documents with the court saying his wife, Lynn Suzette Price, could not be located. A judge dismissed the case in 2011, citing procedural concerns.
Later in 2011, Price again filed for divorce. That case is listed as “pending” in court records.
Lynn Suzette Price, an attorney in Trenton, N.J., did not respond to a request for comment.
Curren Price’s reelection website says that he is married to Richardson and that the couple have “raised two kids and are the proud grandparents of three.”
The councilman declined this week to say when and where he married Richardson.
“Del and I are married, but out of respect for her privacy and due to the fact that she has been a recent victim of identity theft and fraud, we have been advised to keep the additional private details about our wedding private,” Price said in a statement.
Richardson runs a consulting company, Del Richardson & Associates. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority awarded her company a contract in 2014 to help businesses affected by local transit construction.
Ronald M. Supancic, a Woodland Hills-based family law attorney who has taught at USC, said it’s not uncommon for an individual to file for divorce and mistakenly believe that a court finalized the order.
“There are probably 10,000 people walking around Los Angeles County who think they are divorced and who are not,” Supancic said.
Twitter: @dakotacdsmith
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