Two families file lawsuit in sober living crisis
Navajo Times | Kianna Joe
Tuba City Police District Officer Rowland Dash points out a potential group of unsheltered people with Native Americans to Harlan Cleveland (middle), the special operations coordinator for the Navajo Police Department, and Derek Benally of the Chinle Police District in this May 2023, file photo.
WINDOW ROCK – Two Diné families are suing Arizona and several entities, claiming they’re liable for their loved ones’ deaths because of a lack of oversight on the sober living crisis, which led to one of the largest healthcare scandals in Arizona’s history.
According to the families’ complaints, Fernando Largo, 32, and Carson Leslie, 44, both passed on from drug and alcohol-related overdoses because of gross negligence and mismanagement caused by the state in licensing, which allowed the “so-called sober living homes” and facilities to form.
Former Attorney General Mark Brnovich and two staff members were notified through a February 2022 memorandum describing in detail the state’s knowledge of the healthcare fraud scheme preying on Native Americans who sought sobriety and addiction, the complaint states.
The 100-page memo named potential impostors and listed questionable extortionate purchases. The suit states that Arizona ignored the evidence.
An excerpt from the memo in the lawsuit states, “The scheme is simple: send vans to the reservations to pick up Native Americans and house them in unlicensed homes (less than 6 to avoid attention), drive them to a center for group each day with no licensure, oversight or credentialed staff, then bill AIHP [American Indian Health Program] (no contract necessary) and continues to build an enterprise with a network of people who will find Native Americans.”
The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System and the Arizona Department of Health Services were named defendants in both lawsuits.
Last May, Arizona government officials deferred payments to more than 100 healthcare providers during allegations of fraudulent Medicaid billing to the state, which possibly scammed out of hundreds of millions of dollars and wronged thousands of Native Americans.
According to the lawsuits, this scheme cost the state roughly $2 billion in fraudulent billing.
“The state of Arizona publicly admitted that its gross negligence, gross lack of oversight, gross mismanagement and countless ongoing errors, among other reasons, caused and enabled fraudulent substance abuse treatment centers and so-called sober living homes and facilities – that the state collectively calls ‘Bad Actors’ – to be formed, licensed and thrive by fraudulently billing the state an estimated $2 billion under the false promise and scheme of providing substance abuse treatment services that are not fulfilled or delivered,” the families stated in the lawsuits.
According to the families’ lawsuits, Largo and Leslie were both falsely lured, preyed upon, and misled into the promise of substance abuse treatment; like many Native Americans, they suffered an unimaginable death on March 7, 2023.
Largo overdosed on fentanyl, methamphetamines, and alcohol in a motel room in Mesa, Arizona. He had undergone intake sessions for addiction treatment at Opportunity Changes Communities in Mesa, the lawsuit states.
According to the lawsuit, Mesa police officers found Largo dead inside the Regency Inn, a nearby business that is claimed to have been trusted with the state-authorized treatment center.
Leslie suffered an imaginable death on Sept. 28, 2022, from acute and chronic ethanolism, meaning alcoholism, with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.541, and his body was dumped in the middle of a residential street in Phoenix.
The lawsuit stated Leslie suffered from addiction and sobriety most of his life and had struggling issues when the staff of Victory Home Group worked in conjunction with others to prey on vulnerable Native Americans.
The Victory Home Group employees picked up Leslie for treatment, doused him with alcohol, took him away, and drove three hours from Flagstaff to Peoria, Arizona, and was given more alcohol, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit states two Victory Home Group employees placed Leslie’s body three blocks away in front of another sober treatment facility, Square Rentals and Western Square Rentals, where Leslie stopped breathing.
Leslie’s family stated in the suit that the Victory Home Group employees had no intention of helping Leslie and instead preyed on him to profit from him through illegal schemes and operations.
According to the lawsuits, both families seek general compensatory damages under the Arizona Wrongful Death Act and are represented by John B. Brewer and Dane L. Wood of BrewerWood PLLC.
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