Trouble Across the Country

 *** either operated or was involved with a number of drug treatment facilities across the country during the 1980s and 1990s that closed following allegations of mistreatment or financial troubles. STRAIGHT, Inc. – a juvenile rehab center in St. Petersburg, Fla. – opened in 1976 and closed in 1993 amid a deluge of abuse claims. *** served as national clinical director but resigned in 1983 after losing a civil suit for false imprisonment. After leaving Florida, *** set up his own center, called KIDS of Bergen County, in Hackensack in 1984. Within the first year, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office was receiving complaints. In 1989, investigators said they found evidence of physical abuse, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement and strip searches. In 1990, he closed the Hackensack center and opened a new one in Secaucus, called KIDS of North Jersey. In 1993, three staff members were convicted of beating a 17-year old patient in order to “break his will,” according to newspaper reports. In 1996, he paid a $45,000 settlement to the federal government for more than 200 counts of insurance fraud. Already under investigation by the state for Medicare fraud, KIDS of North Jersey finally shut its door in 2000 after *** settled for $4.5 million with a former patient over abuse accusations. He also opened programs in El Paso, Texas (1986); Yorba Linda, Calif. (1988); and Salt Lake City, Utah (1989). All three eventually closed due to financial troubles.