DRUG REHAB PROBE EXPANDS

State officials join local agencies looking into substance abuse
reports after people in recovery programs are evicted.

The state on Monday joined local agencies in probing allegations of
drug use at a Santa Ana alcohol-and-drug treatment center, where
dozens of residents were ousted over the weekend.

Officials at the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, which
licenses residential treatment facilities, confirmed that an
investigation was underway involving the treatment center, on North
Cooper Street, operated by Cooper Fellowship Inc. But they declined to
discuss details of the inquiry into the Cooper Street cluster of about
half a dozen adjoining group homes, where Cooper Fellowship is
licensed to treat as many as 71 recovering addicts.

Cooper Fellowship also operates another facility nearby, on North
Euclid Street, a so-called "sober living" facility for people finished
with rehabilitation programs or probationers or parolees required to
live in a drug-free environment. It also was the target of
investigators who searched the premises with drug-sniffing dogs early
Saturday. Residents on probation with the county were required to take
a drug test and told they needed to find other lodgings or risk
violating terms of their probation.

"This is an issue we are taking very seriously," said T. Maria
Caudill, spokeswoman for the state agency. "We were notified by the
county and we are following up."

John Bowater, chief deputy probation officer for Orange County, said
his department is conducting an investigation into possible criminal
violations at the treatment center on North Cooper Street and the
sober-living complex on Euclid Street. He declined to comment on
specific allegations involving the treatment center or the
sober-living complex, where probationers, parolees and recovering drug
or alcohol abusers pay $280 a month in rent.

But Richard Bonner, an attorney for Cooper Fellowship, strongly denied
the allegations of drug use at the fellowship's facilities, saying
authorities were overreacting to claims by a disgruntled former employee.

"This raid was nothing but a fiasco," Bonner said Monday, adding that
only one of a total of 44 probationers from both facilities who were
tested Saturday turned up positive for drugs, and that the
drug-sniffing dogs found no evidence of drugs at either location.

Bonner called the single test an early vindication.

"That is a very low 'dirty' test rate when you consider these people
have just recently begun the process of recovery," he said.

However, Bowater said the tests conducted Saturday were not conclusive
and that final results would not be available until the end of the
week. "It could be one, it could be 20. We don't know at this point,"
he said.

Bonner said that all staff members are routinely screened for drugs
and are fired if they test positive. County probation and health care
officials descended on the two Santa Ana facilities just before 7 a.m.
Saturday, telling residents that they had to move to other
county-approved facilities. Twenty-four recovering addicts at the
Cooper Street rehabilitation center were told their treatment no
longer would be subsidized if they remained there. And 44 probationers
spread between the two facilities were told they would be violating
their probation if they remained.

The county first began investigating complaints earlier this year that
required drug tests were not being done properly on residents at the
Cooper Street facility, a county official said. That problem
apparently was fixed, but an investigation was renewed last month amid
new reports of improprieties.

Caudill said the state agency was first alerted Friday by county
officials about alleged improprieties at the treatment center. The
Cooper Fellowship treatment center was licensed by the state in 1989
to provide counseling, treatment and recovery support. She said there
have been no previous complaints or findings against it.

The Cooper Street facility is a live-in rehabilitation center for drug
and alcohol abusers. Many of the residents take part in a 42-day,
$40-a-day treatment program paid for by the county.

The Euclid Street apartment complex, which provides a sober-living
environment for recovering addicts, does not require state licensing.
Some of the residents come from the nearby treatment center, while
others are on probation from County Jail or parole from state prison.
Most ex-inmates must live in a drug-free environment as a condition of
their probation or parole.

On Monday, the Euclid complex was largely vacant. No one used the pool
in the center of the quadrangle.

About 45 people had moved out, leaving about 15 still in residence in
the 25 shared apartments, manager John MacDonald said.

Residents at the treatment center were referred to other
county-contract facilities, said Sandra Fair, acting deputy director
of the alcohol and drug division of the county Health Care Agency.

By the end of the day Monday, 13 had been placed with other programs
and five had asked for placement. At least 21 had chosen to stay at
the rehabilitation facility or made other arrangements, she said.

Bowater said all the probationers had been placed at other facilities.
However, some of the residents at the Euclid complex still were being
notified Monday that they must move to other locations.

"We are not out to arrest anyone; we are not out to make life hard for
them," he said. But resident Kevin Karwellis, 35, disagreed, calling
the roundup at the apartment complex a "fiasco" because no drugs were
found and only one person tested positive for drugs.

"That's a pretty clean bill," Karwellis said.

Cooper Fellowship's rehabilitation center is one of 56 state-licensed
residential treatment facilities in Orange County. The county Health
Care Agency contracts for 529 beds at facilities around the county for
recovering substance abusers. The programs include one-year,
six-month, 90-day and 42-day residency programs at a cost of $7.8
million, most of it paid by federal block grants, Fair said.

The 42-day treatment center program is available to County Jail
inmates who identify themselves as abusers and seek treatment before
being released. It is part of a county program called the "Great
Escape," which links addict inmates with programs to assist their
return to sobriety.