I am watching the Heritage Village Assisted Living situation with keen interest. I have a single word of caution for individuals in the political arena who may be seeking to slow or stop these efforts – Hacienda.
In 2016, when Hacienda Healthcare and its CEO, William Timmons, were suspected of a large billing fraud north of $10M, political forces stepped in and stopped the investigation and the state removing the patients from the facility. The method the politicians, particularly Governor Doug Ducey and his Chief of Staff, Kirk Adams, used to stop the investigation the day before the suspect facility would be effectively shut down, was to terminate the investigators and supervisors conducting the investigation. This move was affected quickly and easily since they were at-will employees. The CEO of Hacienda warned several state employees, including the investigators, that he had friends with tremendous political clout in Arizona; indeed, he was correct. Ironically, one of the pollical officials involved was highly involved with stripping state investigators from covered to uncovered positions while he was Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives in an almost covert process a few years prior. Full disclosure, I was one of the peace officers terminated over the 2006 Hacienda investigation with no reason given by the Governor’s Office. However, unnamed sources were quick to release fabricated information regarding many fine public servants. I purposely use the term unnamed sources because that is what the media cited as sources. However, with over 40 years of law enforcement service here in Arizona, I can accurately speculate where those sources were harvested, the Office of the Governor of Arizona.
As this story went, Nathan Sutherland, a male nurse employed by Hacienda Healthcare, had been sexually abusing a female patient in a semi-vegetative state for several years. This victim was one of the patients on the list to be moved to a safer location in the now stopped law enforcement action. On December 29, 2018, this patient went into labor and delivered a live baby. A separate investigation concluded through DNA that Sutherland was the father.
After the baby was born, fresh eyes were focused on Hacienda and William Timmons around two years after the case was stopped by the Governor’s Office in 2016. The birth of the baby and obvious sexual assaults was more than Ducey and Adams could control through their powerful positions. These fresh eyes would uncover long-term sexual abuse by Sutherland and a massive billing fraud, the same we had identified over two years prior. The fraud case was solid, even in 2016, which was estimated at around $12-14M.
At last, vindication for good state employees when William Timmons pleaded guilty to Fraudulent Schemes/Artifices in Maricopa Superior Court, June 2021 (CR-2020-001859-01). Sutherland received a decade in prison for his acts. The hidden social costs for the totalities of these crimes are incalculable.
The various lawsuits amounted to close to $25M with $7.5M paid by the State of Arizona. Governor Ducey and Kirk Adams have the legacy of running interference for the original case and have responsibility for the long-term effects of placing political favoritism over vulnerable Arizonians and criminal investigations.
The question at hand is: Do the present pollical figures want the same legacy as Doug Ducey and Kirk Adams? My recommendation is to get Heritage Village Assisted Living under control by independent medical professionals while law enforcement investigates if there are criminal acts.
what happen to the child? My understanding is the family took her.. that something good could come of this – I pray.
This illustrates why it was a huge mistake for the Brewer administration to eliminate the merit system in 2010. It removed the only existing barrier to retaliation and cronyism in state government. It also effectively made every agency director a puppet of the governor. I was there during this period and saw first hand the chilling effect it had on agency operations and morale. Brewer and Ducey were a disaster for state government. Now we have a certified idiot in the 9th floor so I doubt things will ever improve.
This article reminds the public just how important the need for ethical statewide oversight of nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities operations in Arizona is. At some point in our lives either we may have a need or someone we know may a need for such a facility. This author points to the cynical use of the most vulnerable segment of society housed in such facilities by some of the most powerful and influential people at the facility and in the state. IMO: problems in ethical oversight as well as continuity and quality of care at such facilities has for decades lack enough of a moral compass that more than this abuse and fraud has been possibly committed. Just as with the deaths attributed to Covid 19 and the high level decisions made during the pandemic which placed more of this vulnerable segment of the population at risk of the virus, the powerful should be held to account as they also lacked transparency in these decisions. The powerful and influential lack the moral compass to be trusted. We must demand the right to know what happened and to demand those involved in these activities be held responsible.