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State moves to revoke rehab home’s license

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State regulators have moved to revoke the license of Morningside Recovery, the widely criticized drug and alcohol rehabilitation operator, and have ordered the company to stop treating patients at three of its Costa Mesa treatment centers.

The news comes as Newport Beach city lawyers are preparing for a Orange County Superior Court hearing on Wednesday in their effort to shut down the company’s Newport Beach homes.

Neighbors have been complaining for years that Morningside facilities are noisy, generate excessive second-hand smoke, traffic and pose other nuisances. The reports of state actions against Morningside pleased activists.

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“This is vindication for the residents who have for years consistently documented and reported violations,” Newport Beach resident Cindy Koller wrote in an email.

Morningside has been in a protracted legal fight with neighbors and Newport Beach city officials, who say the organization violated dozens of city rules. Last summer the council terminated an agreement that allowed the company to operate in town.

The company sued and is still housing patients in eight homes.

California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs spokeswoman Suzi Rupp said that Morningside was to stop admitting clients and to relocate clients living at three Costa Mesa facilities by Nov. 2. The Orange County Register first reported the state’s order.

Acting Morningside Chief Executive Mary Helen Beatificato said in a statement that the company was technically complying with the order. It no longer houses patients in its Costa Mesa facilities, she wrote.

Instead, she says, they live in sober-living homes in Newport Beach and they travel to a separate Costa Mesa facility for “clinical” treatment.

The Newport Beach facilities do not have to be licensed by the state.

State investigators found multiple violations at Morningside facilities, according to public records. They allege that the company’s staff members improperly handled prescriptions, tried to deceive state investigators about the location of medications, detoxified clients at unlicensed centers, provided medical services beyond the scope of their license, and had 70 patients when only permitted for five.

Officials from the Alcohol and Drug Programs also say Morningside staff members admitted a patient suffering from mental illness who had no history of substance abuse, and then they failed to refer the patient to mental health treatment.

The state license hearing is scheduled to begin May 21 in Los Angeles.

mike.reicher@latimes.com

Twitter: @mreicher

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