College Hospital Cerritos, a 187-bed for-profit psychiatric facility in Cerritos, California, has been the subject of a string of lawsuits and regulatory actions over more than fifteen years, including a $1.6 million patient-dumping settlement with the Los Angeles City Attorney, wrongful death and wrongful discharge suits, state fines tied to two 2012 patient suicides, and a 2025 Disability Rights California investigation that found the hospital’s use of physical restraints far exceeded every comparable facility in the state. This overview of the College Hospital Cerritos lawsuits and related enforcement actions pulls the record together in one place.
The 2025 Disability Rights California Report
In May 2025, Disability Rights California published Let Me Go: Excessive Restraint of Patients at College Hospital, a report based on on-site monitoring that began in July 2022. It focused on the hospital’s units serving patients with dual diagnoses of intellectual or developmental disabilities and mental illness.
Between January 2022 and December 2024, College Hospital recorded 486 restraint incidents lasting longer than two hours. The statewide average among other Department of Developmental Services vendors during the same period was four. Sixty of those incidents lasted more than four hours, against a statewide average of one. The average restraint at College Hospital lasted 108.6 minutes; at other California facilities, the figure was 4.8 minutes.
In just the first five months of 2024, staff restrained patients 815 times, accounting for more than a quarter of all restraint incidents reported by the 175 providers contracting with DDS regional centers statewide. That works out to roughly 5.4 restraint incidents per day.
The report documented five-point restraints, prone (face-down) restraints, leg shackles, and locked seclusion rooms. Staff also frequently administered a combination of haloperidol, lorazepam, and diphenhydramine as chemical restraint, sometimes minutes before physically restraining a patient. Investigators found staff routinely skipped de-escalation and went directly to the most restrictive intervention. A patient identified as “Jason” was placed in five-point restraints with no de-escalation attempt despite appearing calm. A patient identified as “Susie” was placed in seclusion and physical restraints for two and a half hours even though staff had noted in their own assessment that she did not meet the criteria for restraint.
Richard Diaz, the senior Disability Rights California attorney who led the investigation, told the San Francisco Chronicle: “College Hospital isn’t making it any easier for these people — they are making it much worse, actually.” He said the restraint history in patients’ medical records made it harder for them to be accepted by residential facilities, leaving them “stranded on a dead-end path.”
College Hospital submitted a formal response on May 15, 2025, stating it “disagrees with the findings” and describing restraints as a “short-term and last resort option” used “sparingly” under physician order. The hospital called its patient population “clinically complex” and said its developmental disability units follow an Applied Behavior Analysis model. It said it had “taken the recommendations from DRC seriously” but provided no specifics on planned changes.
State Fines and Regulatory Citations
The California Department of Public Health has cited College Hospital repeatedly, though critics argue enforcement has been too lenient.
In January 2025, CDPH investigated complaints filed by Disability Rights California and found the hospital had violated federal regulations by improperly restraining or secluding seven patients. Some incidents involved teenagers held in seclusion or restraint for hours without doctor’s orders or safety assessments, with restraints in some cases lasting more than eight hours. CDPH did not impose fines at that time, requiring only a corrective action plan. The hospital said corrective actions were completed between February 21 and February 24, 2025.
On October 10, 2025, CDPH fined College Hospital $41,250 following an “immediate jeopardy” finding stemming from the DRC complaint on excessive restraint and seclusion. A deficiency report and plan of correction were issued alongside the fine.
Since 2019, CDPH has cited the hospital for a dozen serious patient safety incidents, including a patient who asphyxiated with a rope while unsupervised, multiple patient assaults and injuries, and a 2023 case in which a patient with developmental delays and schizophrenia was held in a five-point restraint for hours while records described the patient as “calm and cooperative.” In each instance, CDPH required plans of correction rather than imposing fines or suspending admissions.
Diaz said the agency had not gone far enough. “We do not believe CDPH took a strong enough action,” he said, adding that “it would be easy for College Hospital to slip back into noncompliance if they do not change how they provide treatment and how they train staff.” He called for termination of the hospital’s access to federal Medicare and Medicaid funding until it could demonstrate sustained compliance.
The 2009 Patient-Dumping Settlement
In April 2009, College Hospital agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle allegations brought by the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office that it had dumped more than 150 mentally ill patients from its Cerritos and Costa Mesa facilities onto Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles during 2007 and 2008.
The investigation was triggered by the case of Steven Davis, a patient with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and schizoaffective disorder, who was transported by hospital van from the Costa Mesa facility and dropped off near the Union Rescue Mission. Prosecutors alleged the hospital sent vans roughly once a week, usually dropping off one or two patients at a time without ensuring they could enter the shelters or connecting them with services.
The settlement included a first-of-its-kind injunction prohibiting the transport of discharged homeless psychiatric patients to the streets or any shelter within a designated “Patient Safety Zone” in downtown and South Los Angeles. The hospital was also required to develop new discharge protocols, including formal post-release evaluation systems and procedures for placement in appropriate medical or social service programs. A hospital attorney maintained at the time that the facility had broken no laws.
The Jane Doe Discharge Lawsuit
A separate patient-dumping suit was filed by a plaintiff identified as Jane Doe, a special education teacher in her late 30s with a history of bipolar disorder and generalized anxiety. She alleged that in May 2017 College Hospital discharged her while she was mentally unstable and unable to care for herself, ignoring a promise made to her mother that she would not be released before the mother arrived. According to the complaint, she was left homeless for several days, during which she was injured and sexually assaulted twice.
The hospital moved to dismiss, arguing the statute of limitations had run, that it had legal immunity, and that the plaintiff had left voluntarily after declining post-discharge options. In 2024, Judge Lee W. Tsao denied the majority of the motion, ruling that the claims were not time-barred and that triable issues of material fact existed on whether the hospital had acted recklessly. A co-defendant, treating psychiatrist Dr. Manolito Fidel, was dismissed after the judge found claims against him were filed too late. The case was set for trial in September 2024 but settled on January 7, 2025, with financial terms undisclosed. Judge Tsao vacated the trial on January 10, 2025.
2012 Patient Suicides and Fines
In 2012, two patients died by suicide at the facility in separate incidents weeks apart, producing state fines totaling $125,000.
In April 2012, a 17-year-old girl admitted under a 72-hour hold and assessed as an “imminent danger” to herself hanged herself with a metal shower cord after a nurse was called away from her monitoring post. State investigators found the hospital had failed to remove the cord and shower head and had not performed required 30-second visual checks. CDPH fined the hospital $50,000.
In May 2012, a male patient also on a 72-hour hold died by hanging in a shower area. Nurses discovered him seven to eight minutes after he had asked for “a few minutes” to shower. CDPH imposed a $75,000 fine and required new procedures for storing shower equipment in secure locations and improving patient monitoring.
Wrongful Death and Employee Claims
A wrongful death lawsuit was filed by the family of Augustine Liu, who died on February 26, 2009, after four days as a patient at the facility. The family’s attorney alleged that a doctor had used Liu as a “human guinea pig” for anti-psychotic medication prescribed in partnership with a drug manufacturer. The outcome of the case is not reflected in available records.
In January 2012, mental health worker Tom Sciarra was stabbed in the head and stomped on by a patient while working alone. Sciarra was fired in January 2013 and later sued the hospital alleging wrongful termination and misconduct.
Between 2010 and 2013, police received more than 230 calls related to the Cerritos facility, and incidents during that period included eight patient deaths, 19 escapes, 17 patient-on-patient assaults, three sexual assaults between patients, and four patient-on-staff assaults, according to news reports at the time. Cal/OSHA records showed patients inflicted 38 injuries on staff in 2012 alone, including stabbings, punches, and bites. During that stretch the hospital was under simultaneous investigation by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, the California Department of Mental Health, Cal/OSHA, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Who Owns and Operates the Hospital
College Hospital Cerritos is operated by College Health Enterprises, a private healthcare management company founded in 1986 and headquartered in Santa Fe Springs, California. Barry J. Weiss is the company’s president. The company also operates College Hospital Costa Mesa and College Medical Center. Steve Witt is chief executive officer of the Cerritos facility.
As of January 2025, the hospital’s dual-diagnosis units were operating at full capacity across 68 beds. The hospital reported net inpatient revenue of more than $60 million in 2023, and the average patient stay that year was 19.8 days, more than three times the statewide average of 6.4 days.