Nursing Home Operator Sweetwater to Pay State $15M for Staffing Failures

By Amy Stulick 

California-based nursing home operator Sweetwater Care Resource and its affiliates must pay $15 million after failing to adequately staff its nursing homes.

About $12.5 million includes penalties and $2.5 million will go toward improving staffing and employing a compliance monitor for three years, according to a settlement filed by the state attorney general’s office.

The deal affects 22 of the original 27 defendants named in the lawsuit. Limited liability companies Sweetwater Care OPCO, AJC Healthcare and JBG Partners were dismissed from legal action, as well as James Gamett, managing partner of Sweetwater Private Equity, and Aaron Chesley, named as co-founder of Sweetwater Care in Carlsbad, according to a report from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The remaining 22 limited liability companies are subject to the settlement’s stipulations.

Christopher Cherney of Skilled Review Consulting will serve as Sweetwater’s compliance monitor, with real-time access to facility electronic records. Quarterly announced and unannounced site visits or “desk audits” of operations are also required as part of the settlement, according to the Union-Tribune.

State investigators found more than 14,000 instances of inadequate staffing among Sweetwater nursing homes between 2021 and 2024, according to a case filed more than a year ago.

The inadequate staffing of Sweetwater’s 17 facilities, mostly located in rural areas, led to delayed care and patient harm, according to the case. Residents were exposed to preventable neglect, abuse and injuries including fractured bones that went days without assessment or medical care, according to the state.

Each facility must document resident bed repositioning to prevent skin breakdowns, full body checks, bathing, fluid intake to prevent dehydration, dental evaluations and all reports of suspected resident abuse, as part of the settlement.

Quarterly reports are also required for the following quality measures: falls with major injuries, pressure ulcers, UTIs, catheter use, decline in ability to perform activities of daily living, antipsychotic medication use, decline in mobility, and hospitalizations and ED visits per 1,000 days of care provided.

“This settlement is a step in the right direction for Sweetwater Care and it underscores the California Department of Justice’s commitment to standing against any form of Medi-Cal fraud or elder abuse,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “We will continue to hold accountable those who put profits over patients.”

Nursing homes in the state must provide a minimum of 3.5 direct care service hours per resident day from nurses and certified nurse aides (CNAs), 2.4 of which must be CNAs.

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Nursing Home Operator Sweetwater to Pay State $15M for Staffing Failures 

Judge Grants $3M to Incapacitated Adult Film Actress’ Mom

A judge has approved a $3 million settlement on behalf of a woman and her daughter, who is a former adult film actress but now-incapacitated, against the Malibu rehabilitation center where her offspring allegedly was left in a vegetative state in 2024 because oxygen to her brain was curtailed.

Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Susan Bryant-Deason gave her nod to the accord involving defendant Summit Malibu after attorneys for Yesenia Lara Cooper, mother of Litzy Lara Banuelos, accepted a reduction in their requested fees to be deducted out of the settlement from $1.2 million to $1 million. Banuelos was addicted to ketamine and previously had a failed stint in a drug rehabilitation facility, according to her attorneys’ court papers. Both she and her mother were plaintiffs in the case.

A judge’s approval of the settlement was needed because Banuelos is incapacitated.

In a previous sworn declaration in support of the lawsuit resolution, plaintiffs’ attorney James A. Morris Jr. said hard work was involved in reaching the accord.

“Having lived and breathed this case for nearly two years, I can state with confidence that Ms. Banuelos is significantly injured, but that this case was no slam dunk,” Morris said. “No one knows what exactly happened to Ms. Banuelos or whether defendants could have done anything different to prevent the injuries from happening, given Ms. Banuelos’ fragile state as a ketamine addict when she entered their facility.” 

The lack of oxygen to Banuelos’ brain has caused an anoxic brain injury from which she will never recover, according to Morris, who further says that she cannot move her body and is “effectively frozen.” She sometimes opens her eyes, but does not always track movements, and she occasionally grunts, according to Morris.

At one point specialists offered the theory that a latent infection Willis could have possibly gotten while in the adult film industry may have caused her health issues, Morris says.

Banuelos was known in the industry as Emily Willis. She was a Penthouse Pet of the Month in May 2019 and won multiple Adult Video News awards, including Female Performer of the Year in 2021.

In their previous court papers, Summit Malibu lawyers said Banuelos shared blame for what occurred to her health.

“It is undisputed that during her stay, Litzy had refused to follow medical recommendations and take her medications,” according to the Summit Malibu attorneys’ pleadings. “She refused to go to urgent care or the hospital voluntarily, despite being encouraged to do so by (Summit Malibu).”

While Cooper contended that Summit Malibu should have forced her daughter to go to urgent care or a hospital despite the young woman’s refusal, the facility had no authority to do so, according to the rehab center’s lawyers.

Summit Malibu’s attorneys also said there was no evidence of any negligence on the staff’s part regarding Banuelos’ care given that Cooper’s own lawsuit states her daughter was regularly monitored and seen by the staff.

Nonetheless, Cooper alleged Summit Malibu was lax in her daughter’s care. Willis, now 27, was at the facility for treatment of a ketamine addiction.

“As a direct and proximate result of (Summit Malibu’s) neglect, abandonment, recklessness and negligence in failing to provide care and treatment for Litzy, she suffered irreversible brain damage and permanent physical and mental incapacity, pain, suffering and emotional distress, among other damages,” the suit filed in December 2024 stated. 

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Judge Grants $3M to Incapacitated Adult Film Actress’ Mom