Straight not responsible for breakdown

St. Petersburg Times, April 19, 1988
By Cynda Mort

ST. PETERSBURG - Straight Inc., the Pinellas-based drug rehabilitation center, was not responsible for the 1982 psychotic breakdown of a Polk County man, a circuit court jury has ruled. The verdict, which came Friday night, was the result of a 1983 lawsuit in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court in which Michael Daniels and his mother, Dorothy Daniels Hobby, of Bartow alleged that physical and mental assaults by Straight counselors and clients led to Daniels' breakdown. Daniels, who was then 18, is n ow a patient at a state psychiatric hospital in Arcadia and is diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, a psychiatrist testified. Straight lawyers argued during the five-day trial that Daniels had psychiatric problems preceding his stay at Straight.