100s of Patients Physically & Sexually Abused. Facility Owner? Hosting Rick Scott's Fundraiser

The company you keep:

The fundraiser in question is Mel Sembler, who founded Straight Inc. in 1976. Over 17 years the Straight Inc. drug treatment facilities were repeatedly accused of abuse. As Mother Jones notes, there was at least one Straight Inc. staffer accused of kidnapping adult patients and abusing them in mental, physical, and sexual ways. There were two state investigations that backed up that charge.

Mother Jones reported in 2006 that "hundreds" of patients said they had been abused at Straight Inc. facilities. Samantha Monroe said she had been raped and starved and locked in a closet.

Monroe also said that after she escaped from the program Straight Inc. staff put her in a "timeout room" and "hog-tied her," according to Mother Jones.

The story of his treatment facility is the story of MASSIVE abuse:

It is about depriving American kids of food and sleep; of beating them and painfully restraining them without cause. It's about making kids discuss their deepest, darkest sexual fantasies and activities in front of other kids; about making kids soil their pants; about watching kids while they defecate to make sure Straight hasn't made them so depressed they will commit suicide. It is about spitting in a child's face. Straight is about cajoling or scaring a kid into admitting to drug use or sexual activity he hasn't actually engaged in to frighten parents into paying; it is about showing parents pictures of dead kids in morgues to scare parents further into submission. It is about paying politicians to say nice things about Straight.

The house of horrors FINALLY shut down after the state investigations. Mel, being the bastard he is, never renounced the abuse. He's downright proud of it:

Sembler hasn’t renounced his sordid legacy with the STRAIGHT clinics. An online biography of Mel Sember posted by his nonprofit proudly touts his role in founding the scandal-plagued rehab centers. The biography cheerfully claims, that during “its 17 years of existence, STRAIGHT successfully graduated more than 12,000 young people nationwide from its remarkable program.” There is no mention of the child abuse scandals that led to its downfall.

Rick Scott doesn't care. The man stole from sick people for crying out loud. All he cares about is who helps him. And Mel has helped Rick Scott. He is raising funds for him and has already donated thousands to his campaign.

Don't worry about Mel, he is doing just fine. Although STRAIGHT shut down because of the abuse scandals, Mel just changed its name to "Drug Free America Foundation"-- where it is currently flourishing in St. Petersburg, Florida. This is mostly due to the GOP taking care of their own. We taxpayers gave this SOB and his horrible nonprofit a lot of money, including a quarter million to help promote "a drug-free work environment".

People like Mel and Rick should NEVER be allowed to "serve" the people.

The only thing they should serve is time.