Corporation seeks dismissal of murder charge

AAC Holdings, Tennessee-based parent of American Addiction Centers, on Friday (January 22) made multiple filings to dismiss second-degree murder indictments against the company and several of its employees, including one in San Diego. The alleged events took place in Murrieta.

On July 21 of last year, the state attorney general's office in Riverside County filed an indictment for second-degree murder against five present and former employees of the company and companies that have now been folded into the chain of centers dealing with drug and alcohol addiction.

Those charges last year were the first murder charges ever filed against a corporation in the 164-year history of California, say the defendants in their filings.

The charges concerned alleged mistreatment of an alcoholic, Gary Benefield, who died not long after he checked into a Murrieta center. The California Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes had reported that Benefield's oxygen tank had been emptied at the airport in San Diego, although he suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema. The facility failed to get him an oxygen tank, charged the senate office, and the Riverside attorney general then picked up the case.

The defendants say they twice offered to fill the tank twice, but Benefield refused to let them.

On Friday, the company charged the AG's office with failure to call a coroner, who had ruled the incident a natural death, repeated violations of a prosecutor's duty to present exculpatory evidence, presenting inadmissible evidence, and related transgressions.

The stock of AAC Holdings rose 9.95 percent today (January 25) to $18.35, while the overall market was taking a beating.

(revised 1/26, 5:45 a.m.)