The legal battle for a Brush Prairie-based youth treatment center continues, as Daybreak Youth Services was fined and ordered to cease operations by a judge earlier this month.
On June 15, a Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled against Daybreak Youth Services, fining the nonprofit at least $10,000 for operating without a license, The Spokesman-Review reported.
Two weeks prior, the court granted a temporary restraining order for the Washington State Department of Health against Daybreak, the nonprofit stated in an update the following day. After the June 1 order, the judge struck the order on June 7 before reinstating it on June 9.
The fine stems from Daybreak’s operations prior to the strike and reinstatement, The Spokesman-Review reported. The treatment center operated from June 2 to June 6 despite the order.
The orders come after the state health department revoked Daybreak’s licenses to operate in Brush Prairie and Spokane, where it also has facilities, in late May. The suspension came after Daybreak “repeatedly failed to cooperate with (health department) investigations into ongoing patient safety concerns, failed to make mandatory reports, and failed to respond appropriately to allegations of staff misconduct, all of which are required by law,” a news release announcing the suspension stated.
Those investigations came from incidents with three patients at Daybreak and staff dating back to 2021, according to the health department’s notice of intent to suspend the facility’s operations. The incidents involved sexual contact between patients at the facility during and after their stays.
All three staff members involved in the incidents no longer worked at Daybreak at the time of the health department’s suspension.
When the health department learned of the incidents and began to investigate, they “observed a disturbing trend that staff at Daybreak Youth Services were actively discouraged by supervisors and members of Daybreak leadership from making, and failed to make, required reports to external agencies,” the notice stated.
The obstruction the health department claimed to experience prevented investigators from doing their routine activities while visiting Daybreak, the notice stated. Of the more than 700 facilities investigations in 2022, Daybreak was the only facility that refused to cooperate, according to the health department’s release announcing the suspension.
Following the initial suspension announcement, Daybreak stated it would file suit against the health department. The nonprofit claimed the method the department used for the suspension was unwarranted, as was the timing of the decision since it landed ahead of the Memorial Day weekend.
Daybreak has remained defiant against the health department’s push to shutter the nonprofit. Ahead of the June 15 decision, they provided an update to describe the effects of the closure.
“Case in point, one patient who was forced out of Daybreak recently relapsed, overdosed and was hospitalized,” Daybreak Youth Services Director of External Relations Sarah Spier wrote in the update. “In a parallel situation, a young woman in Daybreak’s receiving center for sex trafficked women, is in danger of being jailed for not completing her treatment at Daybreak.”
David Smith, the nonprofit’s attorney, said the motion granted on June 15 was an attempt to “intimidate Daybreak’s board” without regard for the wellbeing of patients.
The nonprofit intends to appeal the motion to overturn the restraining order in appellate court.
“(The health department) has been moving forward legally on unproven and unprovable allegations,” Smith said. “This ends when they are in an impartial legal proceeding when they have to provide facts.”
