ARIZONA NEWS

Mesa assisted living facility owners accused of racketeering in new lawsuit complaints

Oct 3, 2024, 5:41 PM

Heritage Village Building...

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes added new complaints to a lawsuit against Heritage Village Assisted Living on Oct. 2, 2024. (Heritage Village Photo)

(Heritage Village Photo)

PHOENIX – A lawsuit against a Valley assisted living facility had new complaints added on Wednesday, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

Heritage Village Assisted Living was sued in March by Attorney General Kris Mayes for elder abuse and consumer fraud. Evidence discovered during the lawsuit led Mayes to file an amended complaint on Wednesday that would add racketeering charges.

In addition to racketeering claims, Mayes asked the court to take control of Visions Mesa and Visions Apache Junction, two other assisted living facilities owned by Heritage Village.

Heritage Village is already being run by Peter Davis of J.S Held, LLC who was appointed by the court as the third-party receiver in April, taking over ownership duties from Gary and Tracy Langendoen.

“My office took decisive action earlier this year to protect the residents of Heritage Village by barring the owners from operating the facility,” Mayes said in a press release. “Since then, we’ve discovered just how critical those actions were. We are now amending our complaint to include new evidence uncovered by my office and the receiver overseeing operations.”

As receiver, Davis investigated the financial situation of Heritage and combined with the evidence from the lawsuit, Mayes said new information from the previous owners and management have come to light.

What are the new facts in the lawsuit against Heritage Village?

The new charges put against Heritage focus on the transferring of money to fulfill various needs for the company while ignoring the needs of the facility’s tenants.

The complaints allege that the Langendoens, who own Madison Realty Companies, authorized over $2.9 million to be taken from the Heritage Village operating account. The money, which was designated to go toward residents’ care was instead used to pay real estate debts for other properties or was transferred to to other companies they owned.

Of that $2.9 million, $890,000 was diverted to Visions Apache Junction and $52,000 to Visions Mesa.

Mayes also alleges that after the insurance policy for Heritage Village was canceled due to failure to pay the premiums, Gary raised $200,000 from investors in order to reissue the insurance. He was accused of never using the money to reinstate the insurance.

The movement of money between the Langendoens facilities in Arizona, Utah, Colorado and California is reported to have been done without accounting or documentation.

“This much money moving between facilities indicates that many, if not all, of the facilities are in dire financial straits, and the Langendoens have no qualms about looting one facility to keep another afloat,” Mayes said. “We are asking the court to remove the Langendoens from control of the two Visions facilities before they reach a crisis point and put the residents in even more danger.”

New evidence led to claims that Heritage Village committed forgery between October 2022 and August 2023. The lawsuit alleges that in six license applications to the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), the company submitted false information, fake supporting documents and forged signatures.

Lastly, the Langendoens are accused of charging tenants $25,000 per month to one of their companies for management and accounting services instead of for resident care.

Additionally, the court was asked to include treble damages to the Langendoens and two high-level employees for racketeering, forgery, scheme or artifice to defraud, and illegal conduct of an enterprise.

“Our most important task is protecting the vulnerable residents who are still living in Langendoen-controlled facilities and bringing in new owners who will run those facilities properly,” Mayes said. “Once the residents are safe, we will focus on bringing accountability to the people who caused all of this to happen.”

Why was a lawsuit created against Heritage Village?

Before the lawsuit in 2024, Heritage Village had earned a complicated reputation. In 2019, a resident was accused of killing another inhabitant and in 2020 a caregiver was accused of raping a dementia patient.

In October 2023, AZCentral published an investigation into the facility. The report found that Heritage Village had received 148 citations from the state in a span of three years. Over twice as many as other similar operations.

Less than a week later, Gov. Katie Hobbs directed the ADHS and Department of Economic Security’s Adult Protective Services program to investigate Heritage.

In January, the ADHS informed Heritage Village that it was revoking the facility’s licenses due to repeated violations.

In March, Mayes’ lawsuit accused Heritage Village of not providing proper evaluations by a physician to its bedbound residents.

Heritage Village cares for around 150 patients and is located near Brown Road and 80th Street in Mesa.

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Mesa assisted living facility owners accused of racketeering in new lawsuit complaints