Death at Alcohol Treatment Center Leads to Wider Probe

Detectives investigating the death of a man who was allegedly tied up and force-fed alcohol at a North Hollywood treatment facility to generate a distaste for drinking are also looking into the deaths of at least seven other men who may have died under similar circumstances over the past two years, sources said Wednesday.

Each of the men suffered an apparent alcohol-related death and was found lying on the sidewalk near one of several unlicensed treatment facilities across Los Angeles County, said one source familiar with the investigation.

Identification had been removed from some of the bodies, the source said, and many of the victims had apparently been forced to drink rubbing alcohol--a poison chemically different from drinking alcohol--before they died.

Charges have already been filed in a 1997 case in which a man died after he was allegedly forced to drink alcohol, hogtied, gagged with tape and placed face down at a treatment facility south of downtown.

Scott Carrier, spokesman for the county coroner, declined to release his office’s files on the deaths of the eight men, citing a request from police that they be kept from the public.

Carrier said detectives were reviewing the deaths, which occurred between 1996 and this year.

“These cases have already been investigated,” he said. “There wasn’t anything suspicious when they occurred. Now they’re taking another look.”

Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Dave Kalish said that in addition to the North Hollywood death, detectives from the department’s Robbery-Homicide Division “are looking at cases throughout the city to see if there are any similarities.”

Kalish declined further comment, referring questions to the district attorney’s office. Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, confirmed that charges had been filed against four men in the North Hollywood case but declined further comment.

Arrested in that case were: Alberto Saguache, 38; Armando Sakaqil, 29; Dante Barrera, 32; and Jose Rodriguez, 45. Each is charged with involuntary manslaughter and false imprisonment. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for today.

A search of county death records showed that in addition to Enrique Bravo’s death at Grupo Liberacion y Fortaleza on May 25, three other men have died at 8605 N. Lankershim Blvd.--a strip mall where the clinic is located--over the past two years.

A death certificate stated that one of the men, Toribio Perez, 38, died of accidental alcohol poisoning Oct. 1, 1996.

Emilio Morales, 45, died July 31, 1996. His death certificate said he died of natural causes and noted liver damage.

On March 21 of this year, Simon Lopez, 40, of Pacoima died at the facility. A determination of the cause of death was deferred pending further investigation, according to his death certificate.

No representative of Grupo Liberacion y Fontaleza was available for comment. The group’s office appears deserted, and a sign says the facility is temporarily closed because of a death.

The police investigation is focused on five facilities, said the source familiar with the probe.

One of them is Grupo Vida Nueva Alcoholicos Anonimos on Maple Avenue in Los Angeles, where the death of Ariel Prado led to charges against three men, court records show. Prosecutors said Prado died Nov. 23 from “positional asphyxia” after he was forced to drink alcohol, hogtied, gagged and left face down.

Faustino Arenas, 30; Victorio Lonbera, 26; and Albert Garcia, 26, have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to stand trial June 22 in Los Angeles Superior Court.

At the Maple Avenue facility Wednesday, members said they are closing their doors because of repeated visits by police officers who have come as often as every two weeks, asking recovering alcoholics whether they want to leave and questioning those who stay. The group is a cooperative, jointly run by its members with no formal leadership, they said.

Several men who were packing up the last of the group’s belongings at the small warehouse Tuesday said that the program was completely voluntary.

The program does not involve alcohol “aversion therapy,” but does give recovering alcoholics drinks of liquor, such as vodka, for the first three days so they don’t “have a heart attack” going cold turkey, said one member who did not want to identify himself, citing Alcoholics Anonymous policy. Another man said patients were tied up only if they were in danger of hurting themselves.

The men said they had never been mistreated by the others at the center. On the contrary, they said, they had been offered food, shelter, clothing and counseling while they fought habits that had controlled their lives.

Carlos Alvarado, 35, said the program freed him from alcohol addiction. “We’re about helping people, not hurting people,” he said.

John Sorrentino, who rents space to Grupo Vida Nueva, said he has watched as drug addicts have been brought to the facility bound and gagged by frustrated family members. “That’s the only way they can control them,” he said.

So impressed was Sorrentino with the results at Vida Nueva that he reduced the group’s rent to make it easier for the nonprofit center to make ends meet.

Lydia Becerra, a spokeswoman for the county’s Alcohol and Drug Program Administration, said Grupo Liberacion y Fortaleza in North Hollywood does not have the proper permits to operate a drug or alcohol rehabilitation clinic and that county health authorities only recently learned of its existence.

Sources said the other facilities where suspicious deaths had occurred were similarly unlicensed.

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Times librarian Ron Weaver contributed to this story.