A veteran Arizona lawmaker is calling for an investigation into a behavioral health facility following a series of ABC15 Investigations.
“We have to have a top to bottom review,” Senator T.J. Shope, R-Casa Grande, said. “We will be calling for some sort of investigation.”
Shope said an investigation is crucial after what ABC15 uncovered at Mingus Mountain Academy, an all-girl behavioral health facility for troubled teens in Prescott Valley.
“It’s disgusting. I mean, I can’t believe some of the things I read,” Shope said.
Shope is the vice chair of the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee, a group of lawmakers with oversight over the health department the state agency responsible for licensing Mingus.
“We send these kids to these facilities and to be taken care of and the idea is it’s not supposed to be worse than the situation that you’re sending them from,” Shope said.
ABC15’s reporting highlighted allegations in a recently filed lawsuit.
“It’s been a lot of pain that I’ve had to live for a really long time,” said one the alleged victims Melissa Catalano in a previous interview with ABC15.
Catalano is one of 13 alleged victims who claim they were sexually assaulted or abused by staff at Mingus Mountain Academy in the 55-page complaint.
“They would brag about what they would do to me,” Catalano said.
The lawsuit alleges the sexual assaults or abuse happened at different times from 2011 to 2022.
“The message to the victims is very clear … that this is intolerable,” Shope said.
In a statement to ABC15, Mingus said the allegations in the lawsuit are unproven and “We have turned over every stone in searching for evidence of abuse, and we have found nothing to support these allegations …”
The ABC15 Investigators also found Mingus has a history of fines and violations.
Since January 2022, state health regulators say they have conducted 12 surveys at Mingus Mountain Academy and cited the facility 40 times for deficiencies.
With one of the facility's most significant responsibilities, when two patients were restrained in separate incidents, state health regulators cited the facility for not following policies and procedures, resulting in injuries to one patient and an employee being placed on administrative leave.
Mingus Mountain said an internal investigation was also conducted and corrective actions were taken.
Mingus has said previous deficiencies were fixed as quickly as possible.
AZDHS online records show state health regulators have not found any deficiencies during inspections at Mingus this year.
Mingus Mountain and what the facility has called its management company, Vivant Behavioral Healthcare, were also named in a 2024 sweeping two-year U.S. Senate Investigation.
The Senate probe looked at youth residential treatment facilities operated by four providers, including Vivant.
Lawmakers labeled the report, “Warehouses of Neglect: How Taxpayers Are Funding Systemic Abuse in Youth Residential Treatment Facilities.”
Mingus has called the U.S. Senate investigation a partisan attack on health care providers.
“It’s a lot bigger than just this facility. And these girls, they could be the catalyst for good that occurs within the entire system,” Shope said.
Shope said he has this message for Mingus.
“So, to them I say that we are going to be training our eye very sharply on this entity,” he said.
Shope said he has asked the new DCS director, Kathryn Ptak to investigate Mingus and report back to him. Teenage girls in the Department of Child Safety’s custody are sent to this facility.
Shope said he has not ruled out asking for a formal legislative investigation.
“We do not and will not tolerate insufficient or improper care, maltreatment, misconduct, or abuse – ever,” Mingus also said in its statement.
Officials with Mingus Mountain Youth Treatment Center provided a lengthy updated statement to ABC15. Read the statement in its entirety below or click here.
