Table of Content
- UPDATE: Sober home task force arrests six; total now tops 40
- More sober home arrests in Palm Beach County
- One dead, another injured in Palm Beach Boulevard shooting
- Prosecutions first for death based on 'reckless disregard,' state attorney says
- Sober Home Task Force score: One-fourth already have pleaded guilty
Arrested Jan. 4 on 11 counts of aiding and attempting to aid patient brokering for enrolling residents living in his sober home, House of Chance, in Boynton Beach, in programs at Whole Life Recovery. When law enforcement task forces engage in crackdowns like this, the people arrested often have different levels of culpability, and sometimes none at all. That’s why it’s essential to seek experienced legal guidance to protect yourself and present your own defense in order to separate yourself from others with whom you may have been in business. Also arrested Thursday, Bradley Vercosa, 50, of Wellington, faces 50 counts of patient brokering. The owners of Chapters —Daniel Kandler,David Remland and Mark Desimone — and the admissions director,Sarah Muhammad, were arrested earlier this year on multiple counts of patient brokering.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A crackdown on sober home corruption in Palm Beach County has resulted in another half dozen arrests. Torre’s mother referred to this arrangement in a lawsuit against Pure Thoughts as “The Florida Shuffle,” court documents show. "These individuals exploited people in drug recovery for their own financial gain, leading to three tragic deaths of people under their care," State Attorney Dave Aronberg said in a prepared statement.
UPDATE: Sober home task force arrests six; total now tops 40
Over six months, Muhammad was connected to more than $155,000 in referral fees to the Lahr brothers and Bayne for enrolling residents at their sober homes in treatment programs at Chapters Recovery. “We’re closer to the beginning than the end,” Aronberg said of the investigation by the task force, which includes police, inspectors and agents from a dozen state and federal agencies. While the task force works on more arrests, Aronberg’s prosecutors are now faced with taking those already arrested to court. West Palm Beach police have arrested the owner of a sober home and treatment center. These facilities, also known as halfway houses or sober homes, help people who with drug or alcohol problems. They’re supposed to be referred to treatment facilities based on their individual needs.
Patient referrals usually come from owners and managers at sober living homes, also known as halfway houses, where addicts seeking recovery go to wait for treatment options and stay clean. The homes serve as unregulated community housing for people recovering from alcohol or drug addiction, and often don’t have staff trained in addiction. The suspects face 206 felony counts of patient brokering and conspiracy, and the investigation involves 10 treatment centers from Miami to Fort Pierce.
More sober home arrests in Palm Beach County
Tomasso pleaded guilty on Sept. 23 to 21 counts of patient brokering and was sentenced to 18 months and ordered to pay $107,328 in fines. The newspaper reports Wednesday’s arrests come from the first charges to be filed from a federal probe into sober homes and substance-abuse treatment facilities in Palm Beach County. Under Florida law, it is illegal for a healthcare provider or a laboratory either to offer or provide any form of compensation to a drug-treatment center or a sober home for the referral of patients. Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer approved Swanson’s agreement on Monday. According to court documents, she pleaded guilty to three counts of manslaughter, four counts of patient brokering and one count of racketeering.
Some patients in these homes go completely unmonitored, leaving addicts to their own devices. Just last October, a sober home named Open Arms had two addicts overdose in the facility, just hours apart. An investigation revealed the unstaffed home was filthy, with mattresses stripped of sheets and some smeared with blood. The owner had a history of credit card fraud and other criminal enterprises.
One dead, another injured in Palm Beach Boulevard shooting
If you are approached by police officers, they are often in an investigatory mindset. In the first eight months of this year, more than 400 people have died of opiod-related overdoses in Palm Beach County. Swanson's and Gaver's arrests are among 120 made by the Palm Beach County Sober Homes Task Force since it began work in October 2016, the State Attorney's Office said.
Authorities say that the couple was depositing checks payable to a doctor who didn’t actually work for them. The checks, mostly from insurance companies, would then be deposited into their companies Hope Center for Rehabilitation LLC or Relapse Prevention LLC. In some cases, James Durkin endorsed some of the checks, totaling $37,500. There is no tally of how many private residences are converted to “sober houses” and receive money from private insurers or Medicaid. Palm Beach is just one county in Florida that’s trying to clean up the industry.
Plea deals send Loxahatchee sober home owners to prison after three men died in their care
PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg announced the arrests of 15 people in a multi-state drug treatment fraud investigation on Tuesday. Kandler, 41, was the owner of Chapters Recovery, formerly known as Good Future Recovery. According to the arrest report, Kandler paid $325,000 to three sober home operators who enrolled residents living in their sober homes in treatment programs at Chapters Recovery. On April 19, he pleaded guilty to four counts of aiding patient brokering.
It’s illegal for health care providers to receive money for patient referrals. Michael Martin, 35, of Boca Raton, was arrested on 24 counts of patient brokering for referring residents from his sober home, Fresh Beginnings, to Tomasso’s treatment centers. Kandler is also the owner of Impact Q Testing, a laboratory next to Chapters in Delray Beach.
Iskander, an employee who works for Integrity House, a sober home in Lake Worth, was arrested on six counts of patient brokering. According to the police affidavit, documents found during an October raid on Whole Life Recovery showed he received more than $2,000 between April and June. In the last 24 hours, 5 people have been arrested by the Palm Beach County Sober Home Task Force. State Attorney Dave Aronberg made a major announcement in the state's efforts to target substance abuse treatment facilities operating illegally. Court records show some of these providers ordered multiple urine tests each week for these patients and then billed their insurance companies for thousands of dollars in reimbursement payments. The providers then kicked back some of that reimbursement money to whoever made the referral, according to the records.
According to investigators Jayeshkumar Dave allowed patients at the Wellness Center of Palm Beach to stay rent free in a sober home he managed. According to their arrest reports, Steven Manko and Alana Manko, a husband and wife, managed Treatment Alternatives, LLC. Arenberg received a $275,000 grant from the Florida legislature to start the task force.
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