Per the complaint, after 60 days of sobriety, Bathum allowed Irick to return to her home in Florida and retrieve her car. When she arrived back to Los Angeles in February of 2014, she stayed at the rehab (paid for by her insurance) and started working as Bathum's personal assistant, chauffeuring him around the city.Stephanie Johnston arrived at CRLA from Ohio at around the same time Irick returned from Florida. Court documents explain how Johnston and Irick are half-sisters, and how Johnston frequently joined Irick and Bathum on their errands around LA. Bathum allegedly treated the women to shopping excursions, purchased them gifts, and took them for "fast drives" in his white Tesla.Court documents say he told her how he had 'his eye on her from the beginning,' and asked her to let 'him take care of her for a while.'
After learning that Irick herself felt traumatized from her past employment as a stripper, Irick claims that's when Bathum began to make advances on her. Court documents say he told her how he had "his eye on her from the beginning," and asked her to let "him take care of her for a while." When Irick drove Bathum home in the evenings, he supposedly often requested that Irick pull off onto a back road near his house.There, Bathum asked Irick perform lap dances for him, and persuaded Irick to let him hypnotize her. Per court documents, hypnosis consisted of Bathum sitting behind Irick inside the car while groping her and mumbling comforting words into her ears. Bathum eventually graduated to demanding intercourse and oral sex. In the complaint, Irick claims she felt she had no other option, so she obliged and had sex with Bathum at his house in Agoura Hills.Bathum began approving overnight passes for both Johnston and Irick, despite the vocal opposition of other CRLA staff. Bathum rented hotel rooms for the sisters, giving them a chance to take full advantage of their new overnight privileges. Court documents note the first room was in a Venice Beach hotel, where Bathum allegedly had sex with Johnston without her consent that first night after an evening of heavy drinking.**Read more: Why More Women Are Having Sex on **Drugs
According to the complaint, Bathum rented another hotel room, explaining how he would continue billing their insurance even though they were no longer with CRLA. After a few days, the women explained to Bathum they wanted to return home. Bathum gave them money for their trip, and sent them more money after they returned home.Johnston, however, returned to CRLA in July of 2014. Upon her arrival, Bathum started giving her money again, and allegedly acted as if she owed him sexual favors. Two weeks after her arrival, Bathum called Johnston to his office at a Malibu facility. According to the complaint, Bathum told her he was going to take her on a "tour" of the Malibu facility, and led Johnston up a hidden staircase to a hidden room.According to the complaint, Bathum told her he was going to take her on a 'tour' of the Malibu facility, and led Johnston up a hidden staircase to a hidden room.
Following the encounter, Johnston purchased a plane ticket back to Ohio, and told CRLA staff that Johnston had touched her and that she could no longer stay at CRLA.When Broadly reached out to speak to Bathum about the allegations his attorney, Stanley Lieber, responded by phone saying:**Read more: True Erotic Crime Story: A Notorious Sex *Temple* and Its Ruling Pimp Priestess**
With these horrible allegations—you would think that if any of them were true some criminal goverment agency would have followed up and filed charges, and that has not happen. I don't know if the FBI was contacted but they aren't filing any thing, the District Attorney hasn't filed anything.You know these people are being believed, but they're drug addicts. When you're a drug addict which— all of them were at one point but are hopefully not now—one thing is that you lie about lots of things to get drugs. And they're lying now, according to Mr Bathum.
According to LA Weekly, Bathum and his rehab companies are under investigation by the FBI, LAPD, the LA County District Attorney's Office, the California Department of Health Care Services, as well as nearly every major insurance provider in the state of California. The story also revealed how eight former CRLA members had died of drug-related causes, with five cases in 2015 alone.Earlier this year, a former CRLA employee named Roseann Stahl sued Bathum for wrongful termination. Her complaint, filed in March of 2016, claims Bathum and other CRLA employees fired her after she began investigating claims of drug and sexual abuse by Bathum.Bathum is also a convicted felon. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to four counts of mail and wire fraud for selling computers and exercise equipment on eBay that he never delivered. Court records reflect that he had to pay 23 victims a total of $29,733.Perhaps most damning is the fact that Bathum lacks any formal licensing to be a drug and rehabilitation counselor. Court documents stipulate how his only official certification is in hypnotherapy. Yet through a series of legal loopholes, Bathum is allowed to market and profit off purported drug therapy centers.After Hlouchta's death, her lawyer told the LA Weekly, "People like Bathum can get away with stuff, because who's going to believe a drug addict?"Read more: Why So Many Rapists Don't Realize They're Rapists