Malibu Beach Recovery Center

It had to happen. Lawsuits are cropping up as a result of the prescription pill abuse epidemic, and a lot of people are clapping. And watching and waiting for more.

First, in a follow up to a post I wrote about a New York pharmacy robbed in June, in which several people died – a victim’s husband is suing, well, pretty much everybody: “David Laffer victim's family files $20M suit.”  The husband is suing the pharmacy owner for not protecting customers, the county police department, the pharmacist who sold Laffer’s wife (the driver) pills, drug manufacturer Abbott Laboratories, and even his father-in–law for spending the money he supposedly collected for a foundation for the dead woman’s children. (The father-in-law maintained he used it for his daughter’s funeral costs. I saw that on the TV news.)

"I think all this could have been prevented if people did their jobs," Miranda Malone [the daughter of the woman who died] said. "Everyone who is a part of this should suffer the consequences."

The family’s lawyer said this is the first lawsuit of its kind. He recalled that someone tried a legal theory like this one to sue gun manufacturers, which wasn’t successful, but he sounded hopeful about this family’s “because of the nature of drug addiction, which drives some people to do whatever is necessary to get more drugs, including commit crimes.” Other attorneys were pro and con on whether or not the family would win the lawsuit.

Laffer, by the way, is serving five life terms for the murders, with no possibility of parole. His wife is serving 25 years. The last time I saw him on TV, he was finally remorseful. Of course, all the drugs were out of his system and he’d had time to think while sober for the first time in probably a long time.

The Drug Enforcement Agency is also starting lawsuits over this epidemic. The Partnership at Drugfree.org, a well-known “drug abuse prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery resource site,” recently posted from an article in the Wall Street Journal about the DEA charging four pharmacies and a health care company “with violating their licenses to sell controlled drugs.”

Who knows where actions like this will lead and if they will really make any difference?  When doctors see that their colleagues who are prescribing pills illegally are paying a stiff price, will they think twice about doing it themselves? Of course, there’s an unfortunate side to all this, too. I’ve read comments from more than one professional who are concerned about what it will mean for people who really need the pain control these pills provide.

Everyone knows that alcohol and other drugs can loosen people’s inhibitions, impair their judgment and lead to semi-consciousness and worse. Drugs cloud so many situations, and one of the worst parts about this for women is that they can be taken advantage of – sexually assaulted -- when they’re not in control of their faculties.

Last spring a court case that appeared frequently in the New York area papers involved a 29-year-old woman charging a policeman with sexual assault. The gist of the case was that two police officers reported that they escorted an inebriated woman out of a taxi and up to her apartment. Afterward, the woman said that the officer named Kenneth Moreno raped her while the other stood guard. The men, who returned to the woman’s apartment additional times that night, told quite a different story. Like so much of court testimony, there was a ton of “He said, She said.” 

Here’s a portion of an article that  appeared on the Huffington Post:

"I couldn't believe that two officers who had been called to help me had, instead, raped me," said the woman, who has sued the city seeking $57 million over the incident.

After consulting prosecutors, she secretly recorded a conversation with Moreno a few days later. He alternately denied they had sex and seemed to admit it, particularly by saying twice that he'd used a condom when she asked him:

Woman: Did you use a condom?

Moreno: Ma'am --

Woman: I'm sorry but I'm completely freaked out --

Moreno: Ok.

Woman: -- about getting pregnant or anything.

Moreno: Ok ma'am, you're not going to get pregnant because nothing happ...yes Ma'am I used a condom. You don't have to worry about being pregnant. You don't have to worry about getting any diseases. Ok? Alright. Alright.

Moreno told jurors he was just "telling her what she wanted to hear" because she had suggested she'd go into the stationhouse where he worked and make a scene.

No DNA evidence was collected in the case, and experts debated whether an internal mark found during an examination of the woman could be interpreted as a sign of rape.

Moreno said he was only trying to console and counsel the woman about drinking during his series of visits, as he shared his own struggle with alcoholism some years before, killed a cockroach in her bathroom, made plans to have breakfast with her and sang to her a verse of Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer."

On the last visit, Moreno said, he suddenly found himself fending off drunken advances from the woman.

"I told her, `There's another time for this. Not tonight.' ... I kind of had her by the shoulders, and I said, 'We're not doing this,'" he told jurors.

But, he said, he wound up in her bed after she fell and got stuck between her bed and a wall and needed to be freed. He said he stayed there with his arms around her for a time, out of sympathy, but kept his uniform on and didn't have sex with her.

In August Moreno’s partner received a two-month jail sentence for misconduct and Moreno was sentenced to a year. Both appealed. In October – the last news I found – Moreno was still out on appeal. 

In mid-December, Jane Brody, a health columnist for The New York Times, wrote that “fewer than 40 percent of rapes and sexual assaults are reported to the police.” And unfortunately, in some cases, a woman reporting being raped after drinking has one difficult road to hoe to get satisfaction.

One of our alumni, we'll call her Cynthia, was doing really well.  She had finished our 90 day program and gone to live in a local sober living.  When she was ready for another, I called Friendly House.  Founded in 1951, Friendly House is the oldest women’s recovery living home in the US, providing a safe harbor for women suffering from the destruction of alcoholism and drug abuse, and has earned a world renowned reputation as the model for sober living.  Every year Hollywood celebrities, in recovery and not, turn out to help raise money for this amazing non profit organization.  

I told Friendly House Cynthia’s story and asked them to accept her.  They agreed, pending an interview.  The day before the interview Cynthia went to apply for government relief.  The case worker offered her a free hotel room in South Central Los Angeles for the night.

And then, as Jeffrey Miles, our in-house legal counselor writes below, the nightmare began.  Kudos to Mr. Miles who worked really hard on this case.

By Jeffrey Miles, Esq.

Rehab is a difficult and daunting process for those who wish to get their lives back on track.  Which is why those who achieve success have every right to be relieved and proud of their achievement -- but nothing spoils that success like an unfulfilled obligation to the legal system that comes rolling out of the lifted fog of addiction and tries to pull you back into the abyss.

Take the case in point of Cynthia, a 22-year-old formerly homeless heroin addict.    While on probation in the East Coast, she failed to complete drug ordered rehab, fell off the wagon and finally came to California to treatment.   Meanwhile the East Coast probation department became aware that Cynthia had failed to comply with her original court ordered rehab, notified the Court that Cynthia was in violation and issued a nation-wide bench warrant for her arrest.  Violation of probation is a serious matter.

While transitioning from one sober living to another, Cynthia was temporarily housed in a hotel which was subject of a police raid.  Cynthia has done nothing wrong but when the police checked the ID’s of the hotel’s occupants, the bench warrant showed up and Cynthia was arrested, held without bail and subject to extradition.

It took an extraordinary and unusual combined effort of public defender’s on both coasts to manage to avoid extradition and get the court to allow Cynthia to complete the recovery process in California instead of being extradited back east to spend possibly years in jail for violating probation.   But while that was going on, Cynthia spent 10 days in jail.  Not the best place for someone recently out of rehab.  You can imagine the effect of all this had on Cynthia who is still fragile and only a short while sober. 

The lesson, though, should not be missed.  If there are “loose ends” that need attention, don’t let them get overlooked while all the hard work is being done to get sober.   All of the above could likely have been avoided by proactive contact with the legal system back east while Cynthia was in rehab and before Cynthia got  arrested on the warrant.   An outstanding warrant can result in arrest, jail without bail and even extradition resulting from any contact with law enforcement, even a simple traffic stop.

With criminal lawyers like Michael Nasatir, Mary Masi, and Gilbert Geilim on his Board of Advisors, not to mention former Citibank CEO Michael S. Knapp, it’s clear John Tarasi came up with a winning concept when he created “Sober Guard.”   The new company provides services to clients facing legal issues because of substance abuse.

“We exist to make the job of the attorney easier, not to replace him or her” says John, a tall, lanky crew-cut Pittsburg native. “My goal is to fill a gap, to do what no lawyer has time to do.   I can help by appearing with the attorney and defendant in court and saying: ‘Your Honor, I vouch for the defendant.  This person is serious about changing his/her life and taking the steps to do it.’   It makes a very powerful impression on the judge.”  

John has been working in recovery for ten years.  He attributes the beginning of his own sobriety to an enlightened Santa Monica judge who sentenced him to drug court instead of jail.   John spent eight months at the non-profit Clare Foundation; while still a patient he began running the Clare Men’s Center.  After completing treatment, he worked as group facilitator for the City of Santa Monica’s inpatient program at Clare, and did individual counseling for both of Clare’s primary care programs.

One day while speaking at St. John’s Hospital he met David Milch, creator of the TV series NYPD Blue and segued to TV production for three years.  While working for Milch’s Red Board Productions, he co-wrote (uncredited) with Milch the pilot for the acclaimed HBO series “Deadwood.” 

He left the entertainment world to start Soba Sober Living in Malibu with Greg Hannley, which they eventually expanded to include a licensed treatment center.

“I saw people coming in with legal issues,” said John.  “Because of my personal experience with the law, I realized I could help them. “   

Sober Guard was officially launched several months ago.  One of the first clients was a well-known actor who had recently completed treatment at the Malibu Beach Recovery Center.  Once he graduated from our residential program, John kept him out of jail by making sure he attended all of the anger management classes and domestic violence counseling sessions the judge had mandated.  Additionally he convinced the judge to sentence the actor to a “creative” type of community service that John believes was a true service to Los Angeles – teaching acting to youngsters in the inner city.

 “I try to match talents of my client to community needs.  Judges like that and the communities benefit.   Picking up trash is more humbling but does not make someone feel he is ‘giving back.’”

John works all over the country, advocating for clients because he believes that treatment is better than jail and jail better than prison.

“I had a client with seven cases before the same judge,” he recalled.  “He came to California, I got him into treatment and 1-2 months later I flew back to New Jersey with him.  The judge with impressed.  He asked me:  ‘You came 3,000 miles to vouch for him and tell me the letter from this rehab is accurate?’  When I assured him this was indeed the case; the judge dismissed all seven misdemeanors and fined my client a mere $250.

“It happens frequently.  In fact, it happens all the time.  Every time we accompany a client and his or her lawyer to court, the sentencing goes better.  Judges tend to put more faith in the defendant because a Sober Guard representative is at their side.  Our clients get easier deals, less time, and stay out of jail.  Sometimes I can get judges to reduce a client’s probation time by half.”

Lawyers like him, he believes, because under John’s care their clients don’t re-offend.  Bondsmen like him because he makes sure the defendant shows up in court.  Judges like him because John gives them confidence that they won’t dismiss charges only to read in the newspaper the following day that the freed defendant blacked out while driving and killed an innocent party.