Chris and Pax Prentiss — the multimillionaire father and son team who built the extensive Passages Malibu addiction treatment facility — are under attack from a variety of sources.
Previously, the Prentisses have had city officials and staff breathing down their necks for nearly a decade, claiming the multiunit complex disturbs the calm of Sycamore Canyon since its eight buildings are all under the same direction and, according to the city, operate as one large hospital-like complex.
Now, they’ve also come under fire from two former employees who claim they were wrongfully fired after speaking out about bad workplace conditions and one particularly difficult supervisor.
On Monday, the L.A. Daily News broke the story of Cynthia Begazao, a former human resources director at Passages Malibu, who claims she was fired after two tumultuous months on the job. Begazao filed a suit against Passages and various co-defendants on Sept. 18.
Representatives for Passages Malibu responded “no comment at this time,” to interview requests from The Malibu Times on Tuesday, Sept. 22.
“Begazao … alleges in her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit against Passages Malibu that she was told to falsify information about a patient’s death, and that her age and medical condition also played roles in her termination,” the Daily News article stated.
Another former employee, Kim Ford, also filed a civil case against Passages and a group of co-defendants including both Chris and Pax Prentiss, Passages Silver Strand, LLC, Grasshopper House, LLC, and Marina Mahoney, the facility’s chief operating officer. Ford had been an employee of Passages for six months, from January to June 2015.
Both Ford and Begazao are represented by the firm Shegerian & Associates, Inc., who call themselves “a law firm specifically focused on protecting the rights of employees.”
Complaints against Mahoney in Ford’s suit include accusations of sexual orientation bias, age discrimination and obstruction of justice, among other complaints logged against the group of defendants.
Mahoney is accused in the suit of calling one older gay employee “a sissy,” “weak” and “a snake,” and saying, “just don’t trust him.” Ford claims no heterosexual employees received similar treatment.
“Ford also observed Mahoney target employees who were older,” the suit claims. One such employee was a worker above the age of 40. According to court documents, Mahoney mentioned terminating the worker’s employment because he was “slowing down.”
“Ford said to give him more time, especially as his wife was dying of cancer,” the suit read. “Mahoney terminated [his] employment soon after, regardless of Ford’s warnings.”
More accusations surround the conduct of both Mahoney and Pax following the death of a patient at the Passages Ventura facility, who was found dead with a “trash can on his head, scratch marks on his face and the blood of the other patient on his room,” according to the suit.
“State agency representatives came to investigate and asked for personnel files. Ford wanted to help and to walk through with the state agency, but Pax Prentiss kept her away and Ford saw Mahoney rush to try to get her hands on the personnel files before the state agency was able to,” the suit alleges.
Ford also accused Mahoney and Chris Prentiss of tampering with the licensing of the facility in May of this year.
“On or around May 1, 2015, Ford was trying to correct licensing with Passages’ outside accounting firm and outside law firm so that it would be a single LLC for a single facility. If Ford and the outside firms did not go through with the changes, Passages might not have had its license changed in time,” the documents stated. Also in the complaint, “Mahoney and defendant Chris Prentiss told Ford to stop the legally required changes.”
Attorneys representing Ford and Begazao were not available for comment as of Tuesday evening.
City concerns
Controversy surrounding the licensing for the eight-unit complex is a major sticking point in the City of Malibu’s lawsuit against the rehab facility.
City Attorney Christi Hogin told The Malibu Times she would be interested to see how this suit plays out, in light of the city’s ongoing legal battle.
“The one thing we know for sure is, this is not eight distinct housekeeping units of six (beds) or fewer,” Hogin said. “So we will look closely at this lawsuit, once information comes out of it, to see what we can glean about the operations of Passages to see if they are conducting business in a manner for which they are licensed.
“I’m interested to learn, like everybody,” Hogin said. “It always interests me when we can get insight into the inner workings of places like Passages.”
Last month, Pax and Chris Prentiss came to speak before City Council in an apparent attempt to make amends.
“We have not felt welcome by the city council members, this is troubling because most of our goals are in line with yours,” Pax told council, listing various large donations the Prentisses have given to the city.
“We want to be your ally, but instead we feel like an unwelcome visitor,” Pax added.
“That’s great that you’re trying to be a good neighbor, but I’d like to see you adhere to the … codes in the city,” Council Member Joan House responded at the meeting.