Crackdown Sought on Unlicensed Rehab Centers

Los Angeles County supervisors called Tuesday for a crackdown on unlicensed alcohol rehabilitation clinics, as the number of suspicious deaths linked to the facilities rose to 11 and allegations surfaced of beatings and whippings at some clinics.

The supervisors assailed court officials for not knowing that some criminal defendants were referred to such facilities to serve sentences requiring that they get alcohol-abuse counseling.

“The thing that blows my mind is that the courts had on their list of referrals these particular agencies,” said county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky at the board’s weekly meeting.

Defendants sent to such clinics “came for help and they were killed,” he said. “If we do nothing else as a county or state, it’s to protect those who are vulnerable.”

Meanwhile, the number of suspicious deaths under investigation by the coroner’s office has risen to 11, said county Supervisor Mike Antonovich. The total reported previously was eight.

Fred Leaf, chief of compliance and contracts for the county Department of Health Services, said court officials were unaware of the methods used at the facilities, which billed themselves as offering Spanish-language Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and were included on a list compiled by Alcoholics Anonymous.

“Really, the court, in a way, was duped, as all of us have been,” Leaf said. “The problem with this group is what appears to be sort of a tame AA meeting turns into a nightmare.”

He said that although the facilities appear to share a common treatment philosophy, “there does not appear to be any individual in charge. There is no leadership.”

Leaf announced three more arrests--bringing the total to 10--in connection with activities at the clinics, which he described as “almost cultish.”

In addition to the suspicious deaths, Leaf said, investigators have found evidence of whippings, beatings, forced alcohol consumption and other offenses.

Although court officials were warned in a previous advisory about 57 potentially dangerous sites, Leaf said a newly created task force is focusing on seven clinics that operate 24 hours a day and are suspected of practicing so-called “aversion therapy,” in which patients are force-fed alcohol in an effort to kill the urge to drink.

Members of the task force, including state and county health officials and representatives of the Los Angeles Police Department and the county Sheriff’s Department, have visited two of the 24-hour clinics and plan to visit the remaining five by the end of next week, Leaf said.

During a visit to an East Los Angeles clinic Monday, three clinic workers were arrested after a former patient who was returning to gather his belongings complained that he had been held against his will, Leaf said. He said the owner of the property where the clinic leases space has agreed to close the facility.

Health officials have also been posting fliers in the Latino community warning of the potential dangers of the clinics, and are considering a proposal to open a 24-hour hotline.

The task force is expected to report back to the Board of Supervisors in the next two to four weeks.

To date, criminal charges have been brought against seven men in connection with two deaths at two treatment centers.

Earlier this month, four men were charged with involuntary manslaughter and false imprisonment in connection with the death of a man who was allegedly tied up and forced to drink alcohol at Grupo Liberacion y Fortaleza in North Hollywood. Last year, three men were arrested and charged with manslaughter in connection with an allegedly similar death at Grupo Vida Nueva Alcoholicos Anonimos near downtown. All have pleaded not guilty.

One of the problems authorities have faced in regulating the facilities is that they bill themselves as one thing, but are allegedly functioning as something else.

Legitimate Alcoholics Anonymous counseling--provided on a drop-in basis and with no drugs given--would not require a license, health officials said.

“There’s a big question here as to ongoing responsibility,” Leaf said.

Yaroslavsky voiced concern over the difficulty of finding anyone responsible for overseeing the clinics, where treatments appear to be given by men who say they are former patients and by self-organized volunteers.

“I’m not getting a warm, fuzzy feeling about this, because I’m not seeing somebody step up to the plate,” the supervisor said.

Yaroslavsky called on AA to help monitor groups that purport to have an association with it.

“AA is a great operation. I am amazed and shocked that [these groups] are under their umbrella,” he said. “I can see what happened to the court--they’re relying on AA’s good name.”

No spokesman for Alcoholics Anonymous could be reached for comment.