April 10, 2008 03:30 pm
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ALLENTOWN (AP) _ A group of recovering addicts and disgruntled employees took control of six drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers amid a power struggle with the board of directors, saying management doesn't understand how to treat addiction, officials said.
Administrators of Hogar Crea International Inc. of Pennsylvania won an injunction in Northampton County Court after claiming in a lawsuit the dissident workers physically occupied the treatment centers last month and "announced that they would not allow" the organization's executive director or other officials to manage them.
The injunction, issued Monday, ordered about 20 people to stay away from the organization's homes in Allentown, Bethlehem, Freemansburg, Reading, Lancaster and Philadelphia.
About 100 protesters, including people who say they're in treatment, massed outside the Hogar Crea house in Allentown on Wednesday, saying that administrators were interfering with their rehab.
Fernando Felix, treatment director for Hogar Crea's Delaware chapter and a defendant in the lawsuit, said Wednesday that it's hard for many of the group's addicts to feel comfortable with executive director David Clark or others.
"They may know more than me from books, but they don't have the life experiences," Felix said.
Hogar Crea was founded in Puerto Rico 40 years ago and has spread internationally. Hogar is Spanish for home and Crea is an acronym for Community for the Re-Education of Addicts.
The nonprofit group opened its first rehab center in the Lehigh Valley in 1981.
The centers' treatment philosophy focuses on subjecting addicts to boot camp-style tactics to help them break their dependence on drugs or alcohol. Many addicts then become group leaders and help other addicts.
John Stahr, the president of the board, said he was laughed at when he tried to serve complaints at the facilities Tuesday and some of the locks had been changed.
"At this point we're trying to get control or it will get dissolved," Stahr said. "They aren't rational or reasonable about it. It's their way or no way. We'll see what happens ... they have no respect for the law or authority."
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