Rehab charged with 3 patient deaths –

February 4, 2020 – Until now, the Sober Homes Task Force and Aronberg’s office had made more than 100 arrests, mostly patient brokering and insurance fraud charges. These are the first arrests involving deaths.

“It’s a new front in the ongoing battles against those who take advantage of others with addiction,” Aronberg said.

“We’ve got treatment providers who are more interested in cashing in on the insurance policies than they are on really providing patient care,” said Josh Horton, an attorney who represents the family of Anthony Torre, who died of an overdose while in one of Gaver and Swanson’s treatment residences. 

Torre, who was 36 at the time of his death, is the basis of one of the manslaughter counts. Authorities identified the other patients as Michael Kosarko and Andrew Van Cleef.

According to the arrest report, authorities found Kosarko dead inside a residence at Pure Thoughts at Turtle Creek on Mar. 23, 2017, three days after being admitted to the facility. The medical examiner ruled Kosarko’s death as “combined drug toxicity.” A therapist told Swanson that the facility “was not equipped to supervise patients as early in addiction treatment as Kosarko was.” 

However, investigators said Swanson, “without any formal medical or clinical training, refused to assist Kosarko in transferring to an appropriate addiction treatment program.” For his time at the center, an LLC owned by Swanson billed Kosarko’s insurance $3,900.

@CBS12