In the hours before sunrise on Thursday, August 26, a man from a drug rehab home in Newport Beach showed up showing signs of paranoid delusion. He screamed that he wanted to go, that he was being followed, that he wanted to go home.
The neighbors woke up. Henry Richard Lehr, 23, raged for 10 to 15 minutes before breaking into a beautiful house on a nearby cul-de-sac around 4 a.m.
The man in this house had a gun .
In a matter of seconds, Lehr, a budding singer-songwriter with a "phonographic" memory that fought against alcohol and other substances, died.
The man who shot him still doesn't know whether he will be exonerated for self-defense or charged with a criminal offense.
And the residents of this little corner of Santa Ana Heights, who live near two state-approved drug treatment centers and two unlicensed sobriety homes, insist that there must be a better way to get people in crisis out of drugs or alcohol than to put them second. Houses in the middle of residential areas.
Lehr's family is stunned and heartbroken. A surveillance video shows him breaking down the neighbor's front door, but they say it was more than what happened that night.
"He wasn't an aggressive or violent person, but he acted like that that night," said his father David Lehr of Bloomington, Indiana.
"It appears to be a withdrawal symptom, a psychotic episode," added David Lehr. "I've never seen him act like that. I think he thought he was trying to break away from what was haunted him, trying to get to safety or joining his family, which is tragic and sad.
Post mortem and toxicology reports are pending and the incident is still being investigated. But the eldest Lehr believes that his son was not there at all on the night he died. She said her son drank a lot on Monday when he checked into the Gratitude Lodge drug treatment center, but Tuesday was mostly quiet.
On the Wednesday evening before the incident, young Lehr began hallucinating. They took him to Hoag Hospital, gave him medicine, and took him back to Gratitude Lodge.
He left a few hours later and was found dead in a neighbor's house.
The California Department of Health, which authorizes drug treatment centers, said it cannot comment on incidents that may be under investigation.
Gratitude Lodge declined to comment on this story through its attorney, as did the shocked man he had fired.
Dangerous detox
Gratitude Lodge is one of more than 1,700 licensed or certified drug treatment centers in California and one of 32 in Newport Beach, according to state records.
Most are six-bed facilities that operate in neighborhood houses in residential areas. They are not blocked, so people cannot be forced to stay against their will. While many, like Gratitude Lodge, work with licensed medical personnel to provide what are known as "additional medical services ", they do not have doctors available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Detox is the first step in getting people off drugs or alcohol, and medical experts say it can be a dangerous time. Seizures, especially during withdrawal from alcohol or benzodiazepines like Valium and Xanax, are not uncommon, and state data suggests that many deaths in licensed drug rehab centers occur during detox.
Gratitude Lodge warns of the medical dangers of rehabilitation in its advertising. "Detox is a period of time in which the body gets rid of the drugs or alcohol it contains. Meanwhile, your body can react physically and psychologically with uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms, some of which can be fatal, "states the Gratitude Lodge website .
The "medical support services" approved by Gratitude Lodge and others labeled do not include primary health care depending on the state.
On the other hand, it is possible to obtain medical records, check patient care, whether it is necessary to reschedule emergency operations, the effect of tests in connection with detoxification from alcohol or drugs, and medical supervision carried out by the patients themselves.
"IMS does not include general primary health care and is limited to services that should not be provided in a licensed clinic or health facility," the state said .
Several other states do not allow detox without increased medical supervision. In Massachusetts, detox must be done in an intensive care unit.
Please help
Santa Ana Heights residents have complained to the city for years about what they consider to be an excessive concentration of drug addiction treatments and vacant housing in their neighborhood.
Of the 70 houses in the brochure, five are group houses. The people who live in these houses are inherently ephemeral, neighbors said, and they lack proper supervision. Other complaints related to proximity (neighbors said there were too many centers too close together) and trade (there are companies that should not operate in residential areas).
In the past six years, at least 29 emergency calls have been made to facilities in the neighborhood. But many residents are shocked by the incident in which Lehr and a neighbor were killed.
"If this guy hadn't had a gun, what would have happened?" asked neighbor David Fiori. "It could have been his life."
John Nardolillo, 30, left Santa Ana Heights shortly after the shooting. But for four years he and his roommates lived in the neighborhood. A friend's new car was stolen. At night while smoking on the porch, he saw people he didn't know when they returned from a nearby store.
"If you're trying to raise your children, you probably don't think about it when you buy a house in this area," he said.
The Lehr shooting sparked a call for change in Santa Ana Heights. At the Newport Beach City Council meeting on September 14, a parade of residents asked city officials to do more to control the rehab centers.
Some local residents have asked Newport Beach to follow the lead of Costa Mesa, which has successfully maintained its sober life orders, which include a 200-foot separation between unauthorized sober homes, 24/7 surveillance days a week in each center and transport the patient home. Who is going.
Newport Beach was indeed a pioneer in trying to control the growing drug treatment landscape. In 2008, the city council issued an ordinance regulating shared apartments for the recovery of drug addicts. It required a municipal permit for new apartments in certain parts of the city and laid down rest periods, parking and smoking areas and truck routes.
Three operators have filed a lawsuit alleging the city violated anti-discrimination and fair housing laws. A truce was reached in 2015 when Newport moved Pacific Shores Properties, Newport Coast Recovery, and Yellowstone Women's First Step House. The city paid operators $ 5.25 million in total, on top of the $ 4 million it had already spent on litigation.
Newport Beach ordinances remain in place, but residents say they're not as strict as Costa Mesa's, and the multi-million dollar payout has led Newport to enforce its own rules.
Newport officials said its rehabilitation law was essentially the same as Costa Mesa's. "They copied our arrest warrant when they wrote theirs," said City Attorney Aaron Harp. "They made some changes to it, but it's essentially the same regulation."
The source of Newport's problems is licensed drug rehabilitation centers, not homes without a license to sober. Local governments, including Costa Mesa, simply cannot impose restrictions on government-approved facilities.
"If we could do something, we would do it. Our hands are tied, "Newport Beach Mayor Tem Kevin Muldoon told residents at the meeting.
The councilor's comment contained partisan fingertips. Disgruntled residents met with Orange County's regulator, Katrina Foley, the Democrat who helped draft the sober laws of life on Costa Mesa during her tenure as mayor. Muldoon urged them to be cautious about his party affiliations and accused the state Democrats that the city was unable to regulate the industry.
The real problem is federal law, say other lawmakers on both sides. Rehabilitation operators are using the Disabled and Fair Living laws as a legal weapon and shield to avoid regulation. Drug addiction has long been viewed as a disadvantage, and operators have often successfully argued that cities should treat addicts weaning facilities as mere housing, not businesses.
Nardolillo, the neighbor who moved in after the shooting, sympathizes with people struggling with drug addiction. He came to California from Maryland for treatment in 2013 and has worked in drug rehabilitation centers in Orange County since he got sober, he said.
"You have to be somewhere," said Nardolillo of the rehab centers in the neighborhood. "It is aimed at people who want to clean themselves to have a normal, everyday appearance, to live in a neighborhood rather than in a gray hospital."
Enrique
Perhaps there has never been a more desirable child than Henry Lehr.
During a celebration of her life in Bloomington on September 4, Barbara Lehr shared that she was so desperate for a child that she began negotiating with God before Henry was born. A few weeks later she was pregnant.
"Henry was a lovely boy. He was in awe and awe of life, "said his mother. "He woke up, ran out, and came home to say, 'Today is the day the Lord made and we will be happy!' "
His son is a terrible student but a great learner, he added. He had attention problems but was hooked by the stories.
"If you try to get him an idea, his mind will find an analogy that will help me understand what he was saying," he said. He carried quotes from the Simpsons in his back pocket and loved making his father laugh.
He also has a "phonographic memory," said Barbara Lehr. When he heard something, he could recite it almost perfectly. After moving to Arizona for rehab, he worked as a caterer. One night he took an order for 28 and did it all by heart, and it was so perfect that the guests gave him standing ovations.
He said he sometimes paid a homeless woman's lunch and then fired her with part of the day's tip. He worked hard, well, and sober, and worked in the hospitality industry in Arizona for many months, his parents said.
One of his greatest loves was music. Lehr taught himself to play the guitar, wrote his own songs and sang in a folk stenor. Her sister remembered playing a piano that was out of tune during wicked hours. "Henry touched so many hearts and made so many indestructible bonds," he said. "He fought. How hard he tried. How talented he was.
The family is also deeply religious. The day before he died, Henry Lehr called his mother and said, "Jesus has come to me. He says he cast out my demons and my mom, he is my lord and my savior and I will serve him all my life because I love him with all my heart, "said Barbara Lehr with a broken voice.
"What we didn't know was that his whole life would be 12 hours. I'm looking forward to this phone call. What a precious gift from my God.
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