Others May Have Died in Alcohol Treatment

Detectives investigating the death of a man who was allegedly tied up and force-fed alcohol at a 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 a sidewalk near one of several unlicensed treatment facilities across Los Angeles County, said a 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 were filed in a 1997 case in which a man died after he was allegedly forced to drink alcohol, then hog-tied, gagged with tape and left face-down at a treatment facility south of downtown.

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

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

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

LAPD Cmdr. Dave Kalish said that in addition to the North Hollywood case, detectives from the department’s robbery-homicide squad “are looking at cases throughout the city to see if there are any similarities.”

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

Arrested in connection with the North Hollywood 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 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 declared 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 said the facility was temporarily closed because of a death.

The police investigation is focused on five facilities across Los Angeles County, said the source familiar with the investigation.

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, hog-tied, 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 for months 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.

Victor Hugo, 21, who said he conquered his addiction to alcohol and drugs with the help of the group five months ago, said he was questioned by police when he chose to stay.

He and five other men, who were at the small warehouse office on Tuesday packing up the last of the group’s belongings, said they were never forced to stay. They said the program was completely voluntary and anyone was free to leave at any time.

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 that patients were only tied up if they were hallucinating and 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.

“Relatives would constantly come by and say that their son or husband was changed, as if by a magic wand,” said one man.

Carlos Alvarado, 35, said the program freed him from an alcohol addiction and straightened out his life. He hasn’t had a drink for two years and now has gotten married, holds a steady job and is going to school to learn a trade.

“We’re about helping people, not hurting people,” Alvarado 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.

Sorrentino said he was aware of “a couple of deaths” at the facility, but that ambulances had come in each of the instances and he did not suspect foul play.

He said the group members were good tenants who seemed to be committed to helping people overcome their habits.

So impressed was Sorrentino with the results at Viva Nueva that he has hired several recovering alcoholics and drug addicts to work at his father’s nearby furniture manufacturing company. He has also reduced the group’s rent to make it easier for the nonprofit 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 county health authorities only recently learned of its existence.

Sources said the other facilities where suspicious deaths had occurred were similarly unlicensed. It was unclear whether there was any link between the North Hollywood facility and others around the county.

Aversion-associated treatments are not unheard of. In the 1980s, the so-called Schick Method tried to inculcate in patients an aversion to alcohol or drugs by confronting them with whatever substance they were addicted to while small electric shocks and drugs that induced nausea were administered.

Experts at licensed drug and alcohol treatment facilities criticized the treatment allegedly given to Bravo at the North Hollywood clinic.

“It’s absolutely insane,” said Al Senella, who has run the Tarzana Treatment Center for 25 years. “It’s simply not an effective means to deal with the problem, and I don’t know of anyone who would think that it is.”

Times staff librarian Ron Weaver contributed to this story.