Addiction treatment center owner pleads guilty to charges linked to 3 patient OD deaths

The co-owners of an addiction treatment center in Florida have both pleaded guilty to charges linking them to three patient overdose deaths, local news source the Palm Beach Post reported July 23.

Andrew Van Cleef, Mike Kosarko and Anthony Torre, three addiction patients at Pure Thoughts in Loxahatchee, Fla., died of drug overdoses between 2017 and 2018 while at the facility.

Prosecutors said the treatment center's owners, married couple Jennifer Swanson, 56, and Bradley Gaver, 45, kept the men at Pure Thoughts instead of sending them to better-equipped facilities to keep receiving payments from the three mens' health insurers.

Court documents show that the couple's attorneys denied wrongdoing at the time of their arrests, saying they did not "intentionally or negligently" harm anyone.

Ms. Swanson pleaded guilty to three counts of manslaughter, four counts of patient-brokering and one count of racketeering in a judge-approved plea deal July 18. She will serve five years in prison and once released, will spend five years on probation.

Mr. Gaver pleaded guilty to similar charges in June 2021, and is serving a two-year prison sentence, according to the Palm Beach Post.

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