LOS ANGELES — A self-dubbed “Rehab Mogul” who operated more than 13 drug treatment centers in Southern California was convicted Monday of rape and drug dealing.
In all, Christopher Bathum, 56, was found guilty of 31 criminal counts. A Los Angeles jury also found him not guilty on 12 similar counts and deadlocked on three others.
Before he was arrested in 2016, Bathum owned and operated 13 “Community Recovery” treatment centers in Los Angeles and Orange counties, as well as six in the state of Colorado. He faces a maximum sentence of 65 years in state prison for the sex conviction and lifetime registration as a sex offender.
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller said Bathum preyed on especially vulnerable addicts who were at the lowest point of their life.
“They were easy targets,” Mueller said in his closing argument. “They were perfect victims.”
Bathum came to the industry with a criminal background and with no education in health care. An investigation by the Southern California News Group found his situation isn’t unique, and that the drug and alcohol rehab industry is rife with fraud and abuse.
Southern California, with more than 1,100 centers, is a hub of the industry, nationally, and is known in some circles as “Rehab Riviera.”
Though insurance companies have filed suit against rehab operators and claimed hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, and federal authorities are investigating the industry, the number one consumer complaint against rehab centers is related to sexual assault.
Since 2015, state regulators have investigated and closed 78 complaints of alleged sexual misconduct at rehabs, according to the Department of Health Care Services, the state agency that now oversees the recovery industry.
Additionally, the news group found that nearly 75 statewide complaints of sexual harassment, sexual assault and inappropriate counselor-client relationships were made to the California agency that regulated addiction treatment centers between 2009 and 2013, before Health Care Services took over regulation.
Despite the complaints, no background checks are done on would-be employees at rehab treatment centers to look for criminal pasts.
As the first verdict was read against Bathum on Monday — guilty for forcible rape — a woman in the first row of the courtroom clapped loudly and began sobbing. She was consoled by friends as the clerk read the rest of the verdicts.
Bathum was also convicted of one count of rape by force of fear, two counts of forcible oral copulation and two counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object — all involving the same victim — as well as 12 counts of sexual exploitation and 13 counts of offering controlled substances to clients, including methamphetamine and heroin.
The five-man, six-woman jury found that Bathum sexually exploited multiple victims, clearing the way for an enhanced sentence.
Jurors acquitted Bathum of 11 counts of sexual exploitation and one count of offering a controlled substance, methamphetamine. They deadlocked on one count of rape by use of drugs and two counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo ordered Bathum to return to court on April 17 to set a date for sentencing.
Bathum — who offered enthusiastic rebuttals to local media when asked about charges of exploitation — gave his patients drugs even as they were trying to quit their addictions, the prosecutor said. He used drugs with some patients, and taught them how to beat drug tests.
Bathum also used his position as a counselor, and his victims’ addictions, to portray himself as a father figure to women in their 20s and 30s. Mueller said Bathum also offered some special privileges, such as internships, company cars and access to iPhones, in return for sex.
Bathum’s attorney, Carlo A. Spiga, told the jury that the rehab centers did a lot of good and credited his client. Spiga downplayed the assaults, telling jurors in his opening statement that the “evidence is not going to show that any of these acts were forcible.”
The defense attorney said he would leave it to the jurors to judge the credibility of the women testifying against Bathum, but also offered comments like, “She knew what she was doing at all times” and “How many of them were hitting him up for money?”
In his closing argument, Spiga said he was “not just passively going to sit here … and accept this character attack on Mr. Bathum.”
Bathum remains in custody. He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday for a pretrial hearing on a separate case, this one alleging money laundering, grand theft, identity theft and insurance fraud. Prosecutors say Bathum and his companies submitted $175 million in fake claims, keeping patients in a never-ending cycle of treatment and addiction.
The news group investigation found that such cases aren’t rare though, if true, the numbers involved in the charges against Bathum could make it exceptional.
State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has called that case, in which Bathum is charged alongside his 44-year-old chief financial officer, Kirsten Wallace, “one of the largest health insurance fraud cases in California.”
About $44 million was paid out by five insurance companies, including Anthem Blue Cross, Blue sheild, Cigna, Health Net and Humana, before the fraud was uncovered prosecutors said.
Bathum is being held in lieu of more than $11 million bail.
City News Service contributed to this report.
