Hospital Faces 3rd Suit Claiming Sexual Abuse

A West Hills psychiatric hospital is confronting its third negligence lawsuit in two years stemming from allegations of inappropriate sexual encounters between employees and patients.

But attorneys say the latest lawsuit has been stayed because Pine Grove Hospital’s parent company, Doctors Community Healthcare Corp., filed for bankruptcy earlier this month.

Pine Grove and Doctors Community were named in a suit filed Wednesday on behalf of a 15-year-old girl who had sex with former hospital employee Angel Vargas. The incident is one of five in three years involving the alleged sexual molestation of Pine Grove patients and former patients.