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YOUNGSTOWN -- Sebastian Rucci, owner of California Palms Addiction Recovery Center, has filed suit in U.S. District Court asking that funds removed from his facility during a raid be returned.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges the federal government seized $603,902 from Rucci's personal and corporate bank accounts after securing five search warrants Oct. 4. Officials executed the warrants the following day.
The money is "all the funds available to pay employee salaries, buy food, pay for utilities, health insurance and other operating costs," the filing states.
"It took 57 months to build the treatment center and it was destroyed in a mere few weeks" by the illegal seizure, it states.
It states the Fourth Amendment provides that "no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause ... and particularly describing the place to be searched, the persons or things to be seized."
It adds, "The warrants used to seize (Rucci's) money only list the property seized. The warrants omit the crime to support the nexus to seize the funds."
On Oct. 5, agents with various federal and state agencies served a search warrant at the facility on state Route 46 in Austintown while carrying out an investigation.
At the time, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, which licenses addition treatment facilities, said the facility was temporarily closed because of the investigation.
On Oct. 26, Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court refused to halt the implementation of a state order to remove the facility's license.
Rucci told The Vindicator that losing its Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services certification to operate a drug and alcohol treatment center was resulting in about half of his 70 clients being referred to other facilities.
He said about 35 clients can no longer be treated at California Palms without the license, but the other 35 can remain there under a lower level of care more akin to a recovery house.