50+ officers raid mental health hospital after patient found in freezer, other disturbing claims

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GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - More than 50 local police officers raided a local mental health hospital.

Only Channel 2 Action News was there when detectives pulled evidence and questioned employees.

Investigators spent hours going through evidence today at two Lakeview Behavioral Health buildings in Gwinnett County.

One is located on Medlock Bridge Road and the other is on One Technology Parkway.

For months, former patients and their families have complained of unexplained injuries after leaving Lakeview.

Police spent hours searching and seizing patient records and computers, as well as interviewing workers at the administrative office. Detectives said they believe they will find evidence of dozens of crimes.

“This is a very large-scale investigation,” said Gwinnett County Police Spokesperson Michele Pihera.

Officials brought their own truck and van for all the evidence they expected to find.

Authorities said they are looking into complaints of abuse, over-drugging and fraud at the facility owned by Acadia Healthcare.

“It appears all the employees are cooperative, they all understand why we are here,” Pihera said.

Channel 2’s Tony Thomas has been investigating Lakeview for months.

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Beth Tipton said her mother is a former patient and victim.

“She had bruising all over,” Tipton told Thomas. “It angers me.”

Thomas flew to Arkansas and New Mexico this fall, listening to whistleblowers at other company sites.

In Gwinnett County, police confirm they're focusing on 51 former patients.

“They could eliminate some of those cases, but they could also find evidence of more criminal activity,” Pihera said.

At Lakeview, no one would talk to Channel 2, but group CEO Jim Spruyt emailed saying: “We continue to work collaboratively and transparently with law enforcement as they follow up their investigation of uncorroborated complaints.”

“It's just a matter of going through a lot of paperwork,” Pihera said.

No charges have been filed. Both facilities are still open.

Here is the full statement from Lakeview Behavioral and Acadia Healthcare on today’s search warrant by @GwinnettPd @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/0QdlzDYH6i

— Tony Thomas (@TonyThomasWSB) December 6, 2019

https://www.wsbtv.com/amp/news/local/gwinnett-county/50-officers-raid-local-mental-health-facilities-in-large-scale-investigation-/1016165355?__twitter_impression=true

For 20 years, a Tennessee baby thief kidnapped more than 5,000 children from the streets, hospitals, and shanty towns of Memphis. Now, 70 years later, survivors of her 'house of horrors' are confronting the past.

•For over 20 years, Georgia Tann ran a lucrative child-kidnapping and -adoption ring.

•As the executive director of the Tennessee Children's Home Society, Tann got rich by stealing babies from their parents and adopting them out to unsuspecting families.

•More than 5,000 children were snatched by Tann, and at least 500 children are believed to have died while under her care.

•Surviving adoptees from the Children's Home Society spoke with Insider about what they endured and how they found out who they really were.

•Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

No one knows or perhaps cares to remember the exact day the Tennessee Children's Home Society in Memphis closed. What is known is that 69 years ago, in late November or early December, the place workers later called "a house of horrors" closed its doors for good.

Shutting the Children's Home Society down may have cast it into obscurity, but by then the home had already permanently changed the lives of more than 5,000 children. The unimaginable horror of the place still reverberates today not because many of the children were orphaned or abused but because they were stolen.

The little-known story caught the attention of fiction author Lisa Wingate when she saw a late-night episode of "Deadly Women" on the Discovery Channel about the children's home matriarch, Georgia Tann.

"I wondered if it was all true or was sensationalized for TV," Wingate told Insider. "So I started digging. I had to know more." The result was "Before We Were Yours," a fictional account of the orphanage told through the eyes of 12-year-old Rill Foss. Released in 2017, the book stayed on top of best-seller lists for over a year.

"People would write or email and say, 'This book is about my mother' or 'I think I might be one of the stolen babies,'" Wingate said.

For more than 20 years, Tann ran the Tennessee Children's Home Society, where she and an elaborate network of coconspirators kidnapped and abused children to sell them off to wealthy adoptive parents at a steep profit.

Her favorite scheme was to drive through impoverished neighborhoods, picking out the prettiest children, then offer them rides in her shiny black luxury car. Once the children were in, they usually never saw their families again.

Story continues

https://www.yahoo.com/news/20-years-tennessee-baby-thief-134448084.html