Just days after a federal judge dismissed a civil case against the owner of a defunct addiction treatment center in Austintown, a motion in the case has been filed by the owner against the government's investigation into his operation.

According to the motion, the California Palms Addiction Recovery Campus, Inc. and its owner, Sebastian Rucci, are asking for the release of the affidavits to unseal the seizure warrants that led to the seizure of Rucci's funds totaling $603,902.82 in 2021.

The court filing opposes dismissing the case without a copy of the seizure warrant affidavits, which the government refused, according to the filing.

The motion was filed on October 4 in the US District Court Northern District of Ohio Eastern Division, stating "a SWAT-style raid was executed on the facility" in 2021 and seized the plaintiff's payroll and business fund accounts.

The complaint by Rucci says his business' "funds were seized without a pre-seizure hearing, without a trial, without an indictment, and without a conviction," which led to the facility's closure. At the time of the funds seizure in 2021, the filing states the facility had 100 patients and 50 employees.

The motion states that seven requests were made for copies of the seizure warrant affidavits since 2021 but have never been unsealed to show the government's alleged reasons for the seizure.

According to the filing, California Palms Addiction Recovery Campus had a surprise inspection two months after receiving its license, followed by a state notification on September 30, 2021, that the facility license had been revoked.

The motion states that the government used baseless allegations to close the facility and cut off funding that allowed it to operate. The filing notes that Rucci had 30 days to appeal and seek a stay; however, all the business funds to seek legal counsel had been seized.

In late September, Federal Judge John R. Adams dismissed the civil case brought by the U.S. government against California Palms and ordered the return of more than $600,000 seized during an investigation.

However, the dismissal "without prejudice" doesn't bar the government from refiling the case in the future.

The government had sought to keep the $603,902.82 seized from the bank accounts of California Palms Addiction Recovery Campus in October 2021 after the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services terminated the facility's certification.

Judge Adams ordered that the seized funds be returned with interest.

The court filing states, "The facility's funds were seized with wild allegations based on the hope that something would turn up to justify the forfeiture. This is not how a seizure of an active treatment facility happens in the United States, maybe China, but not the United States. The protections that should have prevented this were overlooked."

No criminal charges were ever filed in connection with the investigation.