Men Plead No Contest to Death at Clinic

Two members of a North Hollywood alcohol rehabilitation center accused of tying up patients and force-feeding them alcohol to cure them of their addiction entered no contest pleas Friday to charges of involuntary manslaughter in a death at the unlicensed clinic.

In exchange for their pleas, Alberto Saguache and Armando Sakaquil will be sentenced later this month to a maximum of one year in jail and three years’ probation each.

The plea deal was reached days after a coroner’s report revealed that Enrique Bravo, 34, died in May of chronic liver disease and had no alcohol in his system at the time of his death. But Los Angeles County Coroner Lakshmann Sathyavagiswaran, in an occasionally heated exchange with defense lawyers, testified in court Friday that he believes Bravo’s death was a homicide.

The report also indicated that the unconventional methods used at Grupo Liberacion y Fortaleza played a role in the death.

Assistant Public Defender Dror Toister, who represents Sakaquil, said he does not think prosecutors could have proved manslaughter but that his client would probably have been convicted of false imprisonment, punishable by up to four years in prison.

“He’s accepting responsibility even though we think that the case really proves another charge,” Toister said. “Pragmatically speaking, at least as far as a sentence goes, this is the best possible outcome.”

The victim’s family said they were unhappy with the sentences.

“They need more time. Life if possible,” said Erica Ramirez, Bravo’s 18-year-old niece. “They killed someone.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig Renetzky defended the deal. “I think it was a fair deal,” Renetzky said. “We’re not talking about intentional murder. We’re not talking about people with long histories of robbery. But someone died at hands of these four individuals. I think it was a fair deal.”

Two other men charged in the crime, Dante Barrera and Jose Rodriguez, faced some of their accusers in court Friday at a preliminary hearing in Van Nuys to determine whether there is enough evidence against the men to proceed to trial.

Testifying Friday, the coroner said ligature marks on the man’s wrists and his malnourished state bolstered police statements attributed to the defendants and a witness that Bravo was bound and gagged and had not been given food or water. He said such unconventional treatment for withdrawal could lead to suffocation. Even though the body did not show signs of asphyxia, Sathyavagiswaran said he could not rule it out.

Defense attorneys Frank Disabatino and Curtis Leftwich hammered the coroner with questions to show that the only fatal condition the body revealed was liver disease and that he based much of his conclusion on police reports.

Sathyavagiswaran agreed that binding might have no bearing on the death, that Bravo did not show any sign of asphyxia and that police reports were key in putting the case together. But he remained firm that Bravo did not die a natural death.

Los Angeles County supervisors called for a crackdown on unlicensed alcohol rehabilitation clinics in June, after the number of suspicious deaths linked to the facilities rose to 11 and allegations of beatings and whippings surfaced at some clinics were made.

Health department officials said eight clinics suspected of running live-in facilities where patients may have been held against their will have closed since June, half of them after receiving cease and desist orders.

Some patients who say they have recovered from alcohol addiction at the clinics have said their stay was voluntary and that they were given the option of drinking some alcohol to help them with withdrawal.