How a Hialeah councilwoman’s sober home disrupted life in a Miami Lakes neighborhood
Many residents of Miami Lakes are familiar with a sober home that for years was run by Florida Life Recovery and Rehabilitation LLC. From at least 2018 to 2020, neighbors reported disturbances, vandalism and assaults at the four-bedroom house that was turned into a rehab facility on Northwest 153rd Terrace — incidents that led at least one longtime homeowner to move out.
The owner of the company, Angelica Pacheco, was arrested last month on healthcare fraud charges accusing her of exploiting the business to falsely bill insurance companies for medically unnecessary services. Pacheco, who became a Hialeah councilwoman in 2023, was suspended from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis about a week after she turned herself in to the FBI. She has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
READ MORE: Hialeah councilwoman charged with multimillion-dollar healthcare fraud at rehab clinic
But years before her arrest, residents reported multiple disturbances from Pacheco’s sober home in their otherwise peaceful neighborhood. The facility was enough of a nuisance that the town council passed an ordinance cracking down on the “clustering” of group homes.
Raul Gastesi, the town attorney, described the sober home managed by Pacheco as a “headache” for Miami Lakes.
“Neighbors witnessed daily occurrences of drug use, drug dealing, public disturbances and people engaging in sexual activities on the street where the sober home was located,” Gastesi told el Nuevo Herald.
Pacheco rented out the property, a 3,200-square-foot home at 8821 NW 153rd Terrace, from owners Rody Blanco and Jenny Del Pino, who bought the house in 2006, according to property records. From March 2018 to February 2020, the Miami-Dade Police Department documented at least 20 offense incidents at the sober home that were reported via 911, including disturbances, vandalism, assault, battery, injuries and larceny.
Pacheco refuted her critics in an interview with el Nuevo Herald this week, saying, “If they knew a loved one struggling with substance abuse, they would expect them to be treated in a rehab center like the one I ran. We treated every patient with respect and love.”
Alexis Alvera, 60, was one of the residents affected by the sober home, which typically served between two to eight clients at a time, according to Pacheco. Alvera and his family lived at 8831 NW 153rd Terrace, a house two doors down from the sober home. According to a Miami-Dade Police Department report dated July 14, 2018, Alvera said that a piece of FPL equipment, a photocell approximately the size of a baseball, was thrown at an exterior refrigerator in his backyard.
The incident was not an isolated one. Alvera told el Nuevo Herald that objects were thrown at his house on many occasions. He lived in the neighborhood for 14 years until he felt “forced” to leave in 2020. Alvera and his family, including two teenagers at the time, relocated to Pembroke Pines.
“It was untenable. We saw the altercations between the people in that house and with the neighbors,” he said. “We had to move to avoid a worse situation.”
Another ongoing problem was the smell of marijuana, which he said was constant on his street in Miami Lakes. “There was no solution,” he said.
Just a month before her arrest by the FBI, Pacheco advocated for an ordinance to restrict recreational marijuana use in Hialeah, despite it already being illegal in Florida. Pacheco cited witnessing marijuana use outside a Publix supermarket as motivation for the ordinance, which did not pass.
When asked by el Nuevo Herald about Miami Lakes neighbors’ complaints regarding marijuana smells and drug consumption around the sober home, Pacheco dismissed them, stating, “I worked hard in the rehab center to combat drug abuse. We went beyond what the license required to prevent access to drugs.”
“We used drug-sniffing dogs whenever we suspected there were drugs in the house,” she added. “I took this job seriously.”
Pacheco pointed out that people in rehab centers didn’t choose that life; it often starts with a bad decision or a mental health issue. “Inside every young person with addiction is someone who needs a helping hand to change their life, just like the support I provided to these patients,” she said.
READ MORE: DeSantis suspends Hialeah councilwoman following multimillion-dollar fraud charges
One incident from Pacheco’s sober home, dated July 8, 2018, involved a sick or injured person who later was described in the report as an unresponsive man. The man’s wife alleged that she saw him acting “strangely and seemed tired, and went upstairs to bed around 9:45 p.m,” the police report said. She found him unresponsive at 11 p.m. and called 911. She told the police officer the staff gave him an incorrect medication.
That allegation is consistent with a complaint that the Florida Department of Children and Families investigated in 2019 following numerous claims, including a lack of nursing staff on duty after morning hours and inadequate protocols for medication followup.
The agency, which regulates the state’s addiction treatment centers, concluded that the company needed to submit a corrective action plan to address several issues: ensuring clients were protected and treated with dignity and respect; implementing a process to inform clients that they could choose a pharmacy covered by their insurance; establishing policies and procedures for handling, storing and administering medication; creating policies for how clients took their medication at night and during weekends; and developing hiring process policies and job description procedures.
In another incident described by the Miami-Dade Police Department on July 9, 2018, a verbal dispute between two female patients at the sober home escalated into a physical altercation, resulting in the arrest of the woman who had punched and kicked the other woman, causing the victim to lose a tooth.
Anthony Reid, the former director of operations at the sober home, attempted to justify the number of incidents reported to the police, telling el Nuevo Herald that people in recovery from substance abuse disorders have “specific psychological differences.” However, he emphasized that assault or battery was never acceptable. “We had zero tolerance for violence or drug consumption,” Reid said.
In a brief phone interview, Reid expressed shock upon learning that Pacheco was now being investigated for healthcare fraud, though he noted that “the way of keeping medical records was nonsense.” He also claimed that Pacheco “didn’t listen to us (staff) about what the patients needed.” Dissatisfied with the operations, Reid said, “I didn’t like a lot of what was going on there, and I ended up quitting,” without providing further details.
READ MORE: Ex-doctor at Hialeah councilwoman’s clinic was convicted of similar healthcare fraud
Pacheco said that Reid had served as her director of operations for two years until she fired him, alleging mistreatment of both patients and staff. During the DCF investigation, the department noted that all six interviewed clients reported issues with Reid or witnessed instances where he treated others in a condescending and disrespectful manner.
Pacheco also explained that she wasn’t responsible for keeping medical records at the rehab center; it was the staff who managed that. “Everything was documented online. The staff filled out the reports,” she added.
The police reports show that Reid was involved in one of the assault incidents at the home. On March 19, 2019, at 12:04 a.m., a report was filed by Frederick Pompei, who was described as the victim. Pompei stated that he went to the facility with a patient to pick up the patient’s belongings and had an argument with Reid, who then punched him several times on the left side of his stomach.
Pompei told el Nuevo Herald that he took a “kid” to the facility to retrieve his belongings because he was transferring him back to a sober home in Pompano Beach, where Pompei worked at the time. He said he didn’t remember the name or location of that facility.
According to Pompei, he was waiting in his vehicle when he saw three people jump on the young man as soon as he arrived at the facility. The young man ran over to the kitchen window “fearing for his life,” and then Reid approached Pompei’s car and punched him.
Reid did not respond to any questions regarding that matter.
The distress experienced by Alvera’s family was widespread in the neighborhood, prompting numerous residents to attend council meetings seeking help from the local government. At a town council meeting in June 2018, Mayor Manny Cid mentioned consulting with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who advised passing an ordinance to restrict sober homes in the municipality. At the time, Rubio had been pushing for better federal oversight of drug treatment centers, which are largely protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act.
Although municipalities are prohibited from singling out sober homes due to federal laws, Miami Lakes modified its code to address the clustering of group homes, also known as community homes or sober homes.
From June to October 2018, Miami Lakes conducted a workshop and several meetings to tackle the issue. The Town Council ultimately approved an ordinance requiring transitional community residences, including sober homes, located within 1,000 feet of an existing community residence to obtain a special permit from the town.
Since the ordinance was passed in 2018, the town has not received any requests for approval of a transitional community residence, according to the town attorney.
The description of Florida Life Recovery and Rehabilitation LLC’s activities evolved significantly over time, including after the new town law was passed. In financial disclosures during Pacheco’s four council candidacy runs in Hialeah, the company was initially listed as an addiction treatment facility from 2019 to 2021. It later was categorized as a medical office, and by 2023, it had been rebranded as the Pacheco Medical Center before ultimately ceasing operations.
The registered agent of the company was Pacheco’s husband, Daniel Pacheco, who has not been charged with any crime.
This story was originally published July 12, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
