In 2010, a 52 year old man named Gary Benefield flew from his home in Springerville, Arizona to Los Angeles to seek treatment at A Better Tomorrow, a well known drug and alcohol addiction rehabilitation center. The events that followed have ultimately led to the company that owns A Better Tomorrow rehab center seeing five of their staff, including their president, indicted for murder by California Attorney General Kamala Harris, along with their previously thriving stock plummeting. So what happened?
The Death of Gary Benefield
Aside from the unspecified addiction that caused Gary Benefield, a hard working husband and stepfather, to make his trip to A Better Tomorrow, the 52 year old was also suffering from a number of other health problems. He had recently been hospitalized with pneumonia, and also had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease along with emphysema. He was using oxygen, and his tank was emptied at the airport.
When Gary Benefield arrived and was admitted to A Better Tomorrow treatment center in Murrieta, he was not given the further oxygen that medical professionals would usually administer to a person with his conditions, and was instead given a combination of anti-anxiety and antidepressant drugs, as are often used as part of treatment for addictions. Gary Benefield was then left alone for the night, however after midnight, staff failed to check on his condition, which was worsening. The next day, which – to make the story even more tragic – was his 53rd birthday, Gary Benefield was dead.
This was all initially looked into in a report by the California Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes in 2012, which also investigated several other deaths that had taken place at the facility in the same two and a half year period as Gary Benefield’s. Cases had also been raised against A Better Tomorrow in relation to two suicides, where family members believed that the deaths would have been preventable had staff at the facility properly observed their patients.
AAC Holdings
At the time of Gary Benefield’s death in 2010, A Better Tomorrow was owned by a company called Forterus, co-founded by Jerrod Nathan Menz. By the time indictments for the murder of Gary Benefield were unsealed in late July 2015, Forterus had become AAC Holdings – one of the star stocks on the New York Stock Exchange. Listed only in October 2014, AAC had quickly seen its stock rise by 150%, and shareholder confidence was high.
AAC Holdings main operating unit is American Addiction Centers, which runs seven drug and alcohol rehab centers, including, of course, A Better Tomorrow treatment center in Murrieta.
The Indictment of Jerrod Nathan Menz and Four Other American Addiction Centers Employees
Among those indicted by California prosecutors for the murder of Gary Benefield were president, co-founder and second biggest shareholder (with around $200 million invested in AAC), Jerrod Nathan Menz. Menz resigned the day after the news of the indictment, though a statement from AAC said that he would continue to work with the company, and had just felt it appropriate to step down as a board member.
Along with Menz, who is a 42 year old well known character in his hometown of Pittburgh, who sometimes likes to drive around in a gorilla suit, two other former employees and one Mignon Dean, who is still with the company, share the murder indictment. Additionally, a fifth employee has been charged with abuse of a dependent adult.
The Impact of the Indictment on AAC’s Share Price
In the days since the indictment of Jerrod Nathan Menz, Mignon Dean and other AAC employees, the stock that was previously considered one of the hottest in the country rapidly fell in price. On August 4th, trading on AAC stock was even halted for a time because of volatility. In a very short time, the share price plummeted by as much as 53%, demonstrating the concern on the market about this stock.
The criminal case against the AAC members is not likely to be revisited until October, with Jerrod Nathan Menz having posted bail. With the costs of defending high profile members in a case like this very difficult to forsee, as well as the eventual outcome unknown, it is unlikely that market confidence in AAC will improve during this time.
