VINDY EXCLUSIVE || Former recovery center owner faces 15-count drug indictment

October 24, 2018 at 12:07a.m.

Sheridan faces 14 felony drug charges

By JUSTIN DENNIS

LISBON

The former owner of an Austintown recovery center was indicted in Columbiana County on 14 felony drug counts.

Ryan P. Sheridan, 38, of Leetonia, was secretly indicted Oct. 17 on 14 counts of drug possession ranging from fifth- to third-degree felonies, as well as one misdemeanor count, according to court records. Court records do not indicate the substances related to those charges.

Records show Sheridan was arrested last week. A judge released him on a $25,000 personal recognizance bond. He is set for arraignment Nov. 15 before Columbiana County Judge Scott Washam.

Sheridan is the former owner of Braking Point Recovery Center, a drug-abuse treatment center with locations in Austintown, Whitehall and Wooster, which was under state and federal scrutiny last year for alleged Medicare fraud, though charges were never filed.

The FBI opened an investigation in late 2016.

One year ago, agents from the Ohio Attorney General’s office, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency served search warrants at the Austintown center and Sheridan’s Leetonia home, which was valued at about $960,000 and suspected of being purchased with illicit proceeds.

Authorities seized more than $390,000 in cash from the home and $2.2 million from a Sheridan Enterprises LLC bank account, court filings show.

Authorities in January seized a DeLorean car – popularized by the movie “Back to the Future” – and a replica of a Batmobile from Sheridan.

Federal court filings from March alleged Braking Point was providing drug-abuse treatment in beds that were not licensed by the state and allowed a physician to dispense suboxone – an opioid medication used to treat addiction – without DEA authorization.

Sheridan’s federal civil forfeiture case was stayed in May pending the outcome of a criminal investigation into alleged health care fraud and money laundering, as the discovery process could compromise that investigation.

Columbiana County Prosecutor Robert Herron could not be reached to comment late Tuesday.