A former patient from a California rehab facility is suing after he claims an employee there coerced him into having gay sex in exchange for drugs.
Robert checked into the Sovereign Health Group’s Palm Desert facility in January 2017 for a heroin addiction. He was housed in an apartment complex, where a house manager was responsible for supervising his access in and out of the building.
The house manager at the time was a man named Adam Salcido. Almost immediately after checking in, Robert, who identifies as straight, started having horrible withdrawals.
“I felt like I was dying,” he recalls to FOX 10.
That’s when he says Salcido took advantage of the situation.
“He proposed to me that if I would allow him to perform sexual acts and favors on me, that he would give me free drugs,” Robert alleges.
He shared with FOX 10 an email Salcido sent him that reads:
Here’s my number, if you let me s*ck your d*ck, I’ll buy you heroin! Don’t tell anyone, cause I got suspended for asking the same question once already.
At first, Robert turned down Salcido’s advances. But eventually, he says, the withdrawals became so severe he couldn’t resist.
“I was hurting pretty bad,” he recalls.
He finally gave in one afternoon when Salcico allegedly cornered him in the back of the kitchen.
Robert recalls:
There was one point where he had me trapped in the pantry in the kitchen, throwing himself at me, waving the money in my face, I made him give me half of the money before the oral sex. He saw a man in pain, imagine having the flu and the doctor waving the antidote or the medicine right in your face, you’re gonna do anything you can to get yourself better.
Robert says after allowing Salcido to perform oral sex on him, Salcido gave him $150 then granted him permission to leave the facility and buy drugs from a homeless person in a nearby park.
Afterwards, Robert reported the abuse to Sovereign Health, but he says nothing was ever done about it. So he checked out of the facility. Now, he’s suing Salcido and Sovereign Health for unlawful oral copulation and sexual battery.
“My client was weak, he was fragile, and he felt he had no other choice but to comply,” Robert’s attorney Doug Rochen says.
“They gave him money, they gave him access, all of that was at the cost of him having to feel as if he was gay, when he was a heterosexual male, by forcing him to receive oral sex.”
Robert says the incident caused his life to spiral out of control again. Not only did he relapse, but he lost contact with his family, and he says the trauma will haunt him for the remainder of his life.
“He saw me hurting in my worst state, and he completely took advantage of the situation,” he said. “It makes me feel like less of a man every time I think about it.”
Related: Luxury rehab patient wakes to learn he was sexually assaulted by another man in his sleep
Vince
Sweety besides your ambulance chasing lawyer no one’s going to believe you were forced into getting your dick sucked. Plus, you’re a drug addict. Not exactly the most credible.
tham
It’s hard to believe that your life “spiral out of control” AFTER the blow job….
I’m going to say the heroin and ONLY the heroin is the root cause of your life crisis.. heroin has the tendency to do that.
NateOcean
blow jobs are the gateway drug.
sometimes 3 or 4 a day.
just say no!
Robothedestroyer
I think the only one trying to spin the blowjob as the problem is the Lawyer. “The incident caused his life to spiral out of control” sounds more like giving into temptation opened the door to just a lot of bad ju-ju.
Now “all of that was at the cost of him having to feel as if he was gay, when he was a heterosexual male,” in addition to the broken-ish sounding english, is what makes me lol. Ok, I don’t mean to make light of the situation because unwanted sexual anything is terrible and that manager dude needs to pay for what he did… But!… Im sure RECEIVING a blowjob in exchange for some heroin, was a nice change of pace, ya know whtlat I mean?
Magiqua
Three words: abuse of power.
I am really shocked at the light-hearted, mocking, casual response that this story has prompted from the above- imagine if the victim was a vulnerable heroin-addicted woman in a place where they were supposed to be HELPING her being exploited in the worst way to feed her addiction. Such a gross lack of human decency and professionalism and an unbelievable breach of trust. The house manager was in a position of power, preyed on a vulnerable victim (obviously not his first attempt) and sabotaged any chances the patient had of becoming drug free.
And it really is sick how there seems to be a sneering implication that the victim must have enjoyed ‘having his dick sucked’. How the hell is this any different to the vile claims that some women must enjoy being raped? Sexual abuse is sexual abuse, no matter the age or gender of the victim.
I am a woman, and it chills me to think that it might just be a male mindset to take sexual misconduct/abuse lightly, as I see it so often in the comments section of this site.
Paco
If you are surprised by the comments, then you must be new here.
I ageee it was a gross abuse of power against a vulnerable person.
man5996853
I agree completely that this was a gross abuse of power and that the facility and worker (if guilty) should be held liable.
That said, the lawyer lost me at “all of that was at the cost of him having to feel as if he was gay, when he was a heterosexual male”, which is effing preposterous. They have a case based on negligence but they made it far more about the gay thing so I’m now much less inclined to empathy.
PinkoOfTheGange
If it was a female drug adict that checked herself out of rehab and her insurance company handed her the bill because she didn’t complete the program, yup she would have credibility issues too.
Why are you assuming the the gay guy is guilty?
Paco
@PinkoOfTheGange – The linked article has a bit more information.
“He provided FOX 11 an email which appears to be sent to him from Salcido in January, 2017.
It reads “Here’s my number, if you let me s*** your d***, I’ll buy you heroin! Don’t tell anyone, cause I got suspended for asking the same question once already.”
It should be easy for them to prove whether the email is real or not.
Greg
For a heroin addict, he sure is particular about who gives him a blow job. If he felt like he was gay, that’s on him. He was just getting a blow job. Nobody made him suck dick. He’s so strung out, he doesn’t know the difference. The trauma of his heroin addiction will haunt him, not that somebody gave him a blowjob. After all is said and done, he doesn’t realize that his drug addiction caused him to let a man suck his limp noodle. His life spiraled out of control again because he didn’t really want to get clean. It’s every body else’s fault.
Chrisk
As a former drug addict you’re so right. I would look for any excuse to sabotage my own recovery. It wasn’t until I started accepting responsibility for my actions that I started making progress.
barkomatic
He has an email from an employee of the rehab facility offering an exchange of a sex act for drugs. I don’t doubt that addicts are responsible for many of their own problems but this is supposed to be a place where professionals provide a space for recovery and try to limit temptation.
I don’t know why some commenters are ignoring that the facility was very clearly negligent based on the actions of that employee. You don’t go to rehab to buy heroin from a representative of the facility itself.
Not only that, but it sounds like this guy didn’t get the proper medical attention to help him through his withdrawal. It’s like the locked him in the building to let him fend for himself–what a great program.
Xzamilloh
I don’t know… having seen heroin withdrawal firsthand and what it does to a person (it’s nasty), I can totally buy the notion that he was in a hindered state of mind agreed to the oral sex to get a fix.
I mean, these are addicts and they can be just as vulnerable as the elderly or disabled.
Condor221
This should also be a matter for he Police.
Condor221
THE Police
Juanjo
I am not saying this did not happen because shit like this can and does happen. However, drug addict, especially heroin addicts are not the most reliable witnesses. In addition, there was no recovery for anyone to sabotage. You were going through withdrawal which means you were not clean and a long way from clean. Not to mention the idea of a heroin addict exchanging sex for drugs is hardly a surprising concept. A heroin addict will do anything to get his fix. Back when I was doing a lot of criminal law, I represented a number of people with substance abuse issues. The joke was that a heroin addict would steal your wallet, deny it very expertly and insist on helping you look for it. A meth addict would deny you ever had a wallet and insist the wallet in his hands with your id in it, was actually his.
Itsonlythetruth
He apparently never got clean if he was buying and using while in the rehab. So how did this cause him to relapse?
Paco
Did you miss the part where he was given money and permission to leave the rehab by the accused to go buy the drugs in exchange for sexual favors?
From what I have seen of heroin addiction, the withdrawal is the worst sickness a person can experience.
It would be easy to take advantage of someone in that state of vulnerability.
Jim33702
He made the decision to go out and buy it, take charge of your life and quit making it everyone else problem but yours.
Chrisk
I agree it’s all on him. No one raped him or forced the drugs on him. End of story. Case closed. Some of you would be an addicts best friend as in easy to manipulate.
barkomatic
So he goes to a rehab facility to recover from his addiction and the house manager offers sex in exchange for letting him out to buy drugs. That seems like the opposite of what such a facility should do right? Do you also know that people can’t consent if they are not in the right state of mind to do so?
Me2
At the very least, the employee should be fired. If the facility cannot guarantee that their employees aren’t going to prey on and/or sabotage the recovery efforts of their clients, then it should be shut down.
StraightnNarrow
These addicts have not shown any desire to change their behaviors nor their addiction in the rehabs. It’s irrelevant whether they are vulnerable or not. They accept the bribes and sell their soul to the seducer (who should be locked up in jail as well). If the rehab can’t make these druggies repent, maybe they should be forced to forfeit their right to live among us and be quarantined in a psyche ward until they show convincing improvement and willingness to change.
Heywood Jablowme
Wow.
If a Queerty reader is ever in doubt about how to react to any story here, just wait until StraightnNarrow chimes in with his opinion. Then take the OPPOSITE opinion!
Heywood Jablowme
Rehab sounds like a great racket. Plenty of (insurance) money floating around. Hire a bunch of morons at near-minimum wage, like the guy here. (I wonder how far away his trailer park is from Palm Desert? – I’m guessing the east side of the Salton Sea.)
And since rehab doesn’t work anyway, it’s not like there are any government standards or anything. Just tell these losers to go to 12-step groups – which don’t work either, 90% of the time – and that’s it. Rake in the bucks. Sweet!
John Oliver did a show on this a few months ago, well worth checking out.
Chrisk
I’ve seen the rehab statistics and it’s appalling. They did a vice show on that Passages Malibu. It runs $16,500 – $32,500/month and boasts a recovery rate of 80% which they showed to be complete BS.
Then again you look at the typical rehaber and everyone I’ve seen is doing it for all the wrong reasons. Most of the time they’re there for other people.
I think 12 steps are probably better because it requires you to show up and work your recovery. It’s a life long commitment.
Chrisk
Personally speaking I don’t mean to minimize the issue though. It is a sickness that high jacks your brain and is very hard to beat.
StraightnNarrow
I am not unsympathetic with addicts who are willing to do what it takes to recover from their addictions. I support people who are sincere and willing to change but for repeated offenders with a stone cold heart, they have hurt too many people around them to deserve any respect and sympathy.
Lacuevaman
yeah right
lcandela123
What a croc. You didn’t get coerced, you got propositioned. Coercion would be, “Let me suck you dick or I’ll burn your house down.”
Grow up already. Stop being a pathetic victim. Take responsibility for your life. And stop being such a mooch.