Background: Executive Recovery Group, Inc. (California Secretary of State/Google Maps). Inset: Photographs showing neo-Nazi and gang tattoos hang in the gang unit office at the police station in Buena Park, Calif., Feb. 24, 2007. The white supremacist gang Public Enemy No. 1 began as a group of teenage punk rock fans from upper-middle class bedroom communities in Orange County. (AP Photo/Ann Johansson)
A new lawsuit alleges widespread misconduct at a California rehab facility including the subjecting of staffers to homophobic, racist and antisemitic language, Nazi salutes, and “white power” gang signs.
Seven former and current staff members sued the Executive Recovery Group Inc. (“ERG”) in state court in Los Angeles on Monday for unspecified compensatory damages. Executive Recovery is a California-based company that owns multiple drug rehab facilities across the state. The plaintiffs, a group of nurses, aides, and health technicians, said that they were subjected to months of discrimination and harassment during which “ERG did nothing.”
In fact, said the plaintiffs, ERG did not even investigate “the abhorrent conduct of its Nazi supervisors,” until it was threatened with a lawsuit. By that time, plaintiffs said, it was, “Too little, too late—the damage had already been done.”
According to the complaint, Erin Thorley, a white woman, was hired as the center’s executive director in July. “Almost immediately,” Thorley fired two mangers who were Hispanic, and hired Penny Beal and Corey Hurst, both white, as replacements. According to the filing, Beal and Hurst were personal friends of Thorley’s, and Thorkley knew about Hurst’s involvement in a White nationalist group, “which they referred to by several names, including ‘P9,’ ‘Public Enemy Number One,’ ‘Nazi Low Riders,’ and ‘Skinheads.’”
“Further, Mr. Hurst was heavily tattooed with swastikas and other White supremacist, symbols, making his gang affiliation no secret,” noted the complaint.
The plaintiffs said that ERG went on to hire multiple other employees affiliated with the name white nationalist group, and that those employees were promoted more quickly than other non-white employees.
Plaintiff Zamarron, the facility’s resident assistant, a gay Puerto Rican man, said that program director Jay Lepito once referenced him in a team meeting in front of numerous staff members, saying, “this beautiful Puerto Rican homosexual shouldn’t be bathing [rehab residents].”
Lepito allegedly said he was concerned that Zamarron would be “accused of touching the men inappropriately,” and that, “RA Jesse, who is a White, straight male veteran, should be responsible for bathing the residents because he looks like Captain America.”
The complaint also alleged that in November 2023, Karon began working at ERG’s Amigo location and overheard staffers saying that “the owners of ERG were ‘cheap’ and ‘stingy’ because ‘they’re Jews.’”
According to the filing, Black clients were terminated from the program for infractions while white clients faced no consequences. Black clients were allegedly prevented from attending services at a nearby Black church, but staff escorted Roman Catholic clients to Mass.
Another set of allegations detailed a shopping trip to Costco, during which a white employee made racist comments about Hispanic and Asian shoppers as well as about the facility’s clients.
Other allegations detailed behavior such as a male employee showing nude photos of a female colleague to clients and staffers taking home medication meant to be destroyed.
“It is hard to believe that in 2024 a workplace can be filled with Nazi sympathizers,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney Camron Dowlatshahi in an email to Law&Crime Tuesday. “Yet, this is exactly the workplace my clients had to endure day-in and day-out. My clients are good people, who simply wanted to do their jobs and help people in need. Instead, their employer blatantly disregarded their well-being and subjected them to an incredibly toxic environment. We will do everything we can to hold this company, its affiliates, and its owners accountable.”
In March 2024, another former employee, Alexandra Whitmore, sued Executive Recovery Group for sexual harassment and hostile work environment after she said a fellow staffer showed nude photos of her around the facility.
You can read the full complaint here.
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