AUSTINTOWN — In notifying California Palms Addiction Recovery Campus on June 15, 2020, that it was proposing to revoke the facility’s license to provide addiction services, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (ODMHAS) gave a long list of reasons.

The state Route 46 facility was alleged to have committed violations of Ohio Administrative Code that were discovered when ODMHAS representatives visited the facility for unannounced visits in 2019 and 2020.

The licensing issue is separate from the investigation that was carried out Tuesday at the facility by federal and state investigators, ODMHAS stated Tuesday in a press release.

Among the violations ODMHAS listed in the June 15 letter to California Palms was accepting a person for treatment who did not meet the requirements. California Palms also allegedly did not carry out assessments on many of the facility’s residents before they were admitted, the letter states.

The lack of assessment was found for seven of 16 resident records reviewed Nov. 6, 2019, and six of nine resident records reviewed Jan. 10, 2020, the letter states.

The letter included multiple references to Clinical Director Ann Brandt and her inability to understand why California Palms personnel allowed certain residents to remain at the facility.

For instance, she said one resident was reported to have significant mental health issues that worsened during his stay at California Palms. Brandt said she “didn’t understand why (the resident) was still at the facility as as he was inappropriate for substance-use disorder residential treatment.”

Brandt also told ODMHAS personnel on Feb. 4, 2020, that she became aware of discharge summaries that she had started, but not completed that were signed with her name and credentials.

She said she confronted Sebastian Rucci, executive director of California Palms, “and he changed the signatures,” which the letter states is a violation of Ohio Administrative Code.

A later filing for California Palms argued that Rucci believed it is “impossible for anyone to electronically sign anyone else’s name without their password.”

Brandt also told ODMHAS personnel that a homeless person was admitted to the facility “despite her professional clinical guidance to Sebastian Rucci that the individual” was not appropriate for treatment.

During an April 27, 2020, telephone call with ODMHAS personnel, California Pines Operations Director George Rutherford said some clients were not receiving the appropriate type of treatment “because they were doing construction on the building.”

Brandt contacted ODMHAS personnel Feb. 25, 2020, to report a resident was “doing construction work and another was performing computer-system work,” which the letter stated is a violation of the state code.

However, a hearing officer later found that the “facts alleged” regarding the complaint did not “constitute physical, sexual or emotional abuse, neglect or inhumane treatment and finds that MHAS has not met its burden in establishing that” California Palms violated Ohio Administrative Code.

Resident assessments “did not establish a treatment plan to address a person’s mental health or substance abuse disorder in 8 of 15 records reviewed on Nov. 16, 2019,” which the letter stated is a violation of the state code. There were similar findings on records reviewed Jan. 10, 2020, the letter stated.

There were 42 issues of various kinds raised in the letter.

The letter advised Rucci he had a right to challenge the letter’s findings in a hearing. Rucci asked for such a hearing June 18, 2020, according to a separate ODMHAS document. The hearing was held April 8 and 9.

The hearing officer upheld the recommendation that California Palms lose its certification to operate the facility.

Attorney James Vitullo filed a 40-page response arguing the findings of the hearing officer should be stricken because the notice of the hearing did not use the necessary statutory language.

The California Palms response also argues that it made multiple requests to ODMHAS that California Palms be allowed to file a plan of correction.