Sunrise Has a Couple Bad Days
Editorial staff

A blog reader called attention to a May 16 Register article about Sunrise Senior Living. Sunrise is the developer trying to rezone the Casta del Sol golf course, proposing a 300-unit assisted-living project at the south end of the property. Activists following the process say the entire golf course will be carved up for development if the council approves rezoning.

On May 15, a jury awarded $1 million in punitive damages to relatives of a woman who died while being cared for in a Sunrise facility in Laguna Hills. In a separate verdict, the same Superior Court panel awarded $1 million on May 14 to relatives of another resident who died in the Laguna Hills Sunrise facility.

In the matter decided on May 14, the decedent’s children filed a wrongful death claim against Sunrise, alleging “Sunrise Senior Living purposely understaffed facilities in ‘a scheme to place profits over people.’” [Orange County Register, Local page 3, May 16]

According to the Register, the trial also highlighted the Sunrise facility’s violations, which have been investigated by the Department of Public Health. In December 2004, the state agency found the facility understaffed, failing to run background checks on some staff members and providing inadequate investigation of complaints. The facility was cited twice in 2007, and one of the incidents involved a patient being sexually molested.

The blog reader providing the information said, “After being fined $2 million, will Sunrise still have enough money to pay off council members for rezoning the golf course? Oh, I guess it will. At the price Mission Viejo council members sell their votes, it’s chump change.”