Arizona attorney general wants court to order takeover of troubled Mesa assisted living facility

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is seeking an immediate takeover of the troubled Heritage Village assisted living facility in Mesa, alleging that its current owners and managers endangered vulnerable adults and committed consumer fraud, according to a lawsuit she has filed.

Citing reporting from The Arizona Republic as an impetus to a state investigation, Mayes filed the suit naming more than 20 defendants, including Madison Realty Companies — the company that manages Heritage Village — and Linde Leibfried, the facility’s executive director.

The lawsuit asks Maricopa County Superior Court to immediately transfer the management of Heritage Village to a court-appointed receiver — a third-party individual whose job it would be to “bring the facility into full legal compliance and prevent the revocation of the facility license” by the state health department, according to the lawsuit.

If facility management ultimately is proven liable for elder abuse, its owners would have to sell not only Heritage Village but their Vision Senior Living centers in Apache Junction and Mesa as well.

“The events of the past several months demonstrate that the ownership and management of Heritage Village are unwilling and/or incapable of complying with the laws protecting the vulnerable adults in their care, most of whom pay Heritage Village thousands of dollars per month to reside there," court documents state.

Last fall, The Republic revealed Heritage Village had racked up more citations than any other assisted living center in the state with nearly 150 over three years. The investigation exposed injuries, sexual assaults and deaths largely among residents with dementia.

Facility leadership insisted they were turning things around during The Republic's investigation. But state inspectors found 48 more citations after that. In January, the state health department informed Heritage Village that it intended to revoke its license, according to Mayes’ lawsuit.

Mayes launched an investigation after a state inspection. According to the lawsuit, her team found Heritage Village:

• Attempted to cover up the fact that it didn’t have required documentation for residents who can’t walk — even with assistance — by creating those documents only after the state demanded them.

• Concealed more than 100 citations from public view by relicensing itself. If a member of the public searches for Heritage Village in the state’s search tool, only the 56 citations associated with the facility’s new license show up under regular settings.

• Peppered its website with reviews copied and pasted from “other unidentified sites.” Some reviews were written by people with business and personal connections to the facility, like a person who appears to be the executive director’s husband.

Mayes wants to prevent Heritage Village from losing its license entirely because that would leave more than 150 residents and their families scrambling to find them new homes. Moving can cause major trauma for people with dementia.

A receivership would allow residents to remain but receive quality care, Mayes said in an interview with The Republic and azcentral.com. Existing management would be out and the receiver would assess which caregivers were qualified to stay.

Mayes said she believes it's the first time an Arizona attorney general has ever asked for a receiver to take over the operations of a nursing home or assisted living facility.

“It’s long overdue,” she said. “When repeated fines and agency punishments are not enough to deter predators who maximize profits at the expense of elderly citizens, the job of protecting our most vulnerable falls on the attorney general.”

A judge could respond to Mayes’ request within 10 days to a few weeks.

Heritage Village responds to attorney general's lawsuit

Heritage Village said in a statement Thursday that it continues to work with state regulators to correct deficiencies. It noted that it fired the previous management company in mid-2022, tightened security and hired more employees including some coordinators trained in medication disbursement.

“We respectfully disagree with the contention that the health and safety of any Heritage Village resident is at risk,” the statement said. “We are fully committed to complying with the extensive laws and regulations impacting assisted living, and to ensuring that Heritage Village becomes a model for assisted living in the state of Arizona.”

Gary Langendoen, managing director of Madison Realty, has pointed to a new on-site medical office as one of the measures to improve the facility. Langendoen’s firm acquired Heritage Village in 2017.

But Mayes said he's had seven years to improve the facility and hasn't turned anything around.

“I think it’s important to note that the doctor they hired is a defendant in my lawsuit,” she said.

Madison Realty Companies, with offices in Denver and Pasadena, has acquired and managed more than $6 billion in real estate across 30 states, according to JRW Investments, a company that evaluates investment opportunities.

An undated video on its now-defunct website talked up the fact that seniors come with money from life insurance proceeds from spouses and the sales of their homes. Langendoen said in the video that his investors like senior assisted living projects because there’s more demand than supply.

Mayes told The Republic that caring for the elderly is one of the most important duties of our society, “not a side hustle for property flippers.”

“Assisted living facilities like Heritage Village should be run by qualified healthcare providers who adequately staff their operations and train their employees, not by real estate speculators seeking to maximize profits,” Mayes said.

Lawsuit: Facility attempted to cover up lack of documentation

Under Arizona regulations, an assisted living facility can accept non-ambulatory residents — those who cannot walk by themselves or with assistance — only if those residents’ physicians certify in writing that the facility can provide the necessary level of care.

Heritage Village had 39 such residents. For 31 of them, the certifications the facility provided the state were signed by medical providers after the date the state demanded those forms.

Almost all those certifications were signed by the same three physicians. When the state interviewed those providers under oath, they said they signed the forms without understanding what they were signing or looking at resident service plans.

“I honestly don’t really read it. I just sign it,” one of them said, according to court documents.

Another said he had never been to Heritage Village and didn't know his patients lived there.

As of this month, a quarter of the vulnerable adults living at Heritage Village can’t walk even with assistance, the complaint states. Most of them still haven't had an evaluation by a doctor who has looked at their care plans and can assess whether or not the facility is capable of meeting their needs.

"When faced with a choice between bringing the facility into substantial compliance with Arizona law or merely generating paperwork that creates an illusion of compliance, Heritage Village chose the latter option," the complaint reads.

"Despite their long history of failing to comply with state law, including over 170 ADHS citations and tens of thousands of dollars in previous civil penalties, Heritage Village continues to put the health, safety and well-being of their vulnerable adult residents at risk."

Heritage Village told The Republic that it doesn't knowingly admit or house any residents it can't appropriately care for. The facility said it receives every resident's medical records, verified by a physician, before they're admitted and that secondary reviews for some residents should have been completed.

"Any mistakes in that regard have since been remedied," the facility's statement read.

Errors continue after Republic investigation

In her lawsuit, Mayes also is seeking monetary penalties — restitution for “the exorbitant amounts Heritage Village charges its residents and their families while providing dangerously substandard care,” according to court documents.

After The Republic's investigation reported severe medication errors, inadequate staff and building safety issues in October, state surveyors found similar problems continued.

Among many problems, surveyors found that Heritage Village:

• Did not document a resident's fall that landed them in the hospital.

• Hired caregivers that didn't complete required training.

• Left some residents without a bell or intercom to call for help.

• Gave one resident 150% of their prescribed medication, while another received double medication. Other residents' medication was skipped for weeks.

• Left a gate in the fence around a facility patio unlocked, so residents could leave with caregivers none the wiser.

Families of former residents respond

The daughters of some former residents who suffered at Heritage Village responded to the news of Mayes' lawsuit with tears.

“I’m overwhelmed. I’m trying to keep it together,” said Kanji Matsunaga, whose mother was attacked by another resident in 2022. “I really want to believe my mom was part of this lid being blown off.”

Michele Bixby’s mother spiraled into crisis mode after an employee skipped her medication. Her mother, who had severe dementia, pulled her roommate off the bed, which ended up killing the roommate in 2019.

“I’m still dealing with some of the depressions of that. You put your mother somewhere where you think they’re going to take really good care of her because the place looks nice and you see everything functioning and then this happens,” Bixby said. “And then you find out about all these other people.”

Reach Sahana Jayaraman at Sahana.Jayaraman@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @SahanaJayaraman.

Reach Caitlin McGlade at caitlin.mcglade@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @caitmcglade.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Attorney general wants receiver to take over Heritage Village in Mesa