Alleged owner of a Miami-Dade unlicensed ALF arrested. The house had 28 people, cops say
The alleged owner of an unlicensed assisted living facility, a South Miami-Dade house raided by police, state investigators and federal agents Wednesday morning, has been arrested.
And, the ALF wasn’t the only reason law enforcement handcuffed 65-year-old Otto Egea when they found him.
Egea woke up Thursday morning in Miami-Dade Corrections’ Turner Guilford Knight Correction Center after his arrest on not only a charge of operating an unlicensed ALF, but for violating a domestic violence restraining order last December and habitually driving on a suspended license, which is a felony.
Egea was booked into TGK Wednesday night, about 10 hours after Miami-Dade police, Agency for Healthcare Administration, Florida Department of Health and the Department of Children and Family, along with several federal agents, served a warrant at 20700 SW 122nd Ave. in South Miami Heights.
According to investigators, there were at least 30 people living in the 2,460-square feet blue duplex, with the faded words, “Home Sweet Home,” hanging above the front door. “Home Sweet Home 2” was the name of the ALF that was run out of this address under license No. 10773 by South Dade Elderly Corporation, which state records say existed from February 2000 through February 2011.
A check of AHCA records say there’s no longer an ALF license for that address. State corporation records, however, say Janet Allard runs Independent Management Corporation 1 out of that address.
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Like most unlicensed ALFs, from the outside, the house looks like a typical residential house. Miami-Dade property records say it’s an eight-bedroom, four-bathroom house. Police said Egea made room for residents and staff by making alterations to the house owned by OF 122 Ave. LLC, a Miami Lakes company state records show as managed by Michael Spetko.
An arrest report says police counted 26 residents and two staff members Wednesday.
“It’s got multiple rooms subdivided within the home. It’s got bunk beds in there, locker rooms,” Miami-Dade Det. Alvaro Zabaleta told reporters Wednesday. “Clearly, (almost) 30 people to live in one residence is unsafe, and of course, inhumane.”
When residents and staff were interviewed, an arrest report said, investigators learned staff provided meals, monitored medication, as well as helped with bathing and grooming.
“The employees advised that they were paid to provide the above-mentioned services and that their employer was Janet Allard, however Otto Egea made all of the business decisions,” the arrest report said. “Some of the residents were questioned and the advised that [Egea] was the actual owner of the business.”
This wouldn’t be the first criminal activity at this house or by Egea
Egea has a long history of committing such crimes, and a similar warrant was executed on the same house for the same complaint in July 1999, according to a Miami Herald article from the time.
“Neighbors said residents would wander around the streets unsupervised, sometimes knocking on their doors and asking for food or sobbing that they didn’t want to go back,” the article reported.
A next-door neighbor interviewed by the Herald Wednesday said she often saw people in the back yard of the duplex smoking cigarettes and marijuana, and arguing with each other. After police arrived, some residents, looking disheveled and thin, sat and meandered outside, some in bathrobes and Crocs.
Police said people living in the home were a mix of the elderly and those with mental health and addiction issues. Since January, 15 residents had been involuntarily taken from the home for psychiatric evaluations, Zabaleta said.
The Department of Children and Family Services, which has not returned a message for comment on the home, is expected to evaluate the residents to determine where they should go from here. Police are also in the process of interviewing the residents to see how they ended up at the home, Zabaleta said.
More recently, Egea served three years in federal prison on a 2015 conviction for conspiracy to receive health care kickbacks. Prosecutors say he recruited patients for a company called Greater Miami Behavioral Healthcare, which was scamming Medicare, according to court documents.
Egea was among 73 people charged in that investigation.
Although he was released from prison in 2019, the federal government earlier this month garnished his income because the Southern District of Florida said Egea has not paid the $701,084 in restitution he was ordered to pay when he was sentenced to prison, according to court documents.
In December 2022, Egea was living with his daughter, when she got a domestic violence restraining order against him on Dec. 28. An arrest report says he violated the order by going back to the home that night to get his truck.
While arresting Egea Wednesday, police found he not only didn’t have a driver’s license, he’s got a habit of driving without a license. A bench warrant for Egea’s arrest had been active since Jan. 19 after he failed to appear for a court date for his latest ticket for knowingly driving without a license.
