Woman Sexually Assaulted at South Florida Treatment Center, Lawsuit Claims

A woman is suing a South Florida treatment center after she says one of its employees sexually assaulted her while she was a patient at the treatment facility for alcohol addiction.

In a new lawsuit filed in Broward County, the woman, who is identified as Jane Doe in court documents, was staying at Evolutions Treatment Center two years ago, when a staff member, Tyler Eason, allegedly entered her room and sexually assaulted her.

Evolutions, founded in 2013, has an inpatient facility in Miami, an outpatient center in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, and a facility in Fort Lauderdale, according to its website. Evolutions' CEO and founder is Gedale Fenster, an internet personality and a self-described "internationally renowned motivational speaker, spiritual leader, life coach, entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist."

According to the complaint, the woman was smoking a cigarette outside her room on the evening of April 10, 2023, when Eason forced her behind a wall and started kissing her face and neck. She says she managed to push him off of her and get away.

As she lay in bed later that night, the woman alleges Eason entered her room, got on top of her, and sexually assaulted her. She says Eason ignored her requests to stop.

"Several days later, [she] told Jason, an employee at Evolutions Treatment Center, that Eason had sexually assaulted her," the complaint reads. "Upon information and belief, this employee did not properly handle receipt of this information, did nothing to protect [the woman], and ratified this conduct."

"Tyler Eason used his position of authority and trust over [the woman] to sexually assault her," the complaint alleges.

A week after the sexual assault, Eason quit his job at Evolutions, according to the complaint.

Weeks after the incident, the complaint says the woman saw Eason at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting where he "apologized for his actions," acknowledging that the woman was seeking help at the facility and "in a vulnerable position."

In a statement to New Times, Jennifer Lipinski, one of the woman's attorneys, said no person should go through what her client went through, especially when trying to heal from addiction.

"We are deeply concerned with what happened to Jane Doe while she was at Evolutions Treatment Center," Lipinski said in an email. "We look forward to getting answers, including what existing measures they had in place to prevent this and what Evolutions is doing, if anything, to stop future sexual assaults of their residents by staff members."

Evolutions did not return New Times' requests for comment.

Since 2021, six patients have sued Evolutions, which goes by the name TLC Recovery Center of South Florida in business filings, alleging they were sexually assaulted while seeking treatment at one of its facilities.

Two women sued the treatment center in 2021, alleging that a behavioral health technician sexually abused them during their stays at a Broward County Evolutions facility four years prior. One woman claims that the employee took advantage of his position to sexually abuse her during her stay. One lawsuit says that a therapist was aware of the technician's "predatory" behavior but failed to intervene to stop him.

A 23-year-old man sued the company in 2022 after two of his roommates at the Fort Lauderdale facility allegedly "kicked, punched, and spat on him," and sexually assaulted him in his room. Upon receiving treatment at the Nancy J. Cotterman Sexual Assault Treatment Center, according to the court documents, the facility's report noted that the man had bruising on his face, multiple abrasions on his body and hands, and a laceration on his anus.

A woman alleges in a 2022 lawsuit that she was also sexually assaulted at the facility in Miami.

"On March 4, 2021, Jane Doe, AKA I.A., was a patient at the premises, and was thus an invitee upon the premises wherein she was criminally attacked and sexually assaulted upon the premises by another, and suffered serious and permanent injury as a result," the suit reads.

A year later, another former patient filed a lawsuit against the facility with allegations that a male patient, "who was regularly being inappropriate with some of the female patients," entered her room and sexually assaulted her in 2019. The complaint states that the woman received a rape kit exam at the Roxcy Bolton Rape Treatment Center three days later.