The widow and two daughters of a man who took his own life in 2024 at a Malibu rehabilitation facility that has had celebrities among its clients are suing the facility for wrongful death and negligence.
The Santa Monica Superior Court lawsuit filed against Passages Malibu seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. The decedent was 38 years old and his children are 8 years and 23 months old.
A Passages Malibu representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Tuesday. Media reports state that Mel Gibson, David Hasselhoff, Lindsay Lohan and Andy Dick are past Passages Malibu residents.
According to the suit, the Castle Rock, Colorado man was receiving treatment at Passages Malibu for drug and alcohol treatment, where he had received rehabilitation before.
At the time of his admission, the decedent was in a “severely vulnerable state and presented a known risk of self-harm, including suicidal ideation,” according to the suit, which further alleges the Passages Malibu staff was aware of his mental state and initially put him on suicide watch.
Nonetheless, the decedent was “prematurely and negligently removed” from suicide watch without proper psychiatric evaluation or adequate documentation supporting the change, according to the suit, which further states that the staff failed to reassess his mental status and did not develop an individualized care plan to address his continued suicide risk.
As a result, within a very short time after being removed from suicide watch, the decedent used a bed sheet to hang himself from the bathroom door inside his room, and the staff did not intervene in time to prevent the death, the suit states.
The plaintiff has suffered “devastating emotional, financial and psychological harm, including the loss of companionship, guidance and support of a husband and father,” according to the suit.