Paris Hilton's Accounts of Being Forced to Take Daily Medications as a Resident in Various "Troubled Teen" Facilities Pave the Way for Medical Malpractice Lawsuits, Lawyers Say.

Global celebrity, entrepreneur, and advocate Paris Hilton joined renowned Levin Papantonio Rafferty (LPR) Attorney Mike Papantonio and Oregon State Senator Sara Gelser for a candid and driven discussion about egregious abuse within hundreds of facilities in the so-called "troubled-teen" industry. The session marked the opening of the Mass Torts Made Perfect (MTMP) seminar in Las Vegas yesterday, and drew an audience of nearly 2,000 mass tort attorneys from across the U.S.

The audience viewed a segment of Hilton's 2020 documentary, "This Is Paris," where she recounted being taken from her bed in the middle of the night by two strangers, thinking she was being kidnapped. Instead, the arrival of these "transporters" flagged the start of months of abuse in multiple behavioral modification programs, where teen residents were isolated from family, abused, and ordered not to share what was happening under threat of punishment in solitary confinement. 

"No child should be taken from their bed like that...and treated like a criminal," Hilton said. 

For Papantonio, one aspect of Hilton's narrative surfaced as an avenue for legal recourse against these institutions. 

"One  thing  I'm  really  looking  at,  the  strip  searches, the  cavity  searches,  the  being  put  in  solitary confinement  naked,  the  showers  where  the  counselors are  all  watching  what's  going  on...at the top of that hierarchy is somebody with a medical license," Papantonio said.

According to Papantonio, this structure paves the way for cases of medical malpractice. 

Sen. Gelser agreed that at residential youth facilities like Provo Canyon School in Utah, where Hilton spent 11 months, someone with a medical degree sits at the top of the organizational pyramid. "[At] Many of these places, there is nobody with any medical credential whatsoever. But they sell that. They sell that. They sell that."

Gelser said she introduced a bill last session that she thought was "really simple." 

"It said you cannot advertise that you provide treatment if you're a facility unless you are licensed by the state health authority, and you can't advertise that you provide treatment as an individual unless you're a licensed healthcare professional," Gelser explained. "I couldn't run the bill because the Department of Justice told me it was unconstitutional and that we had to go through the licensing boards.

"But the one wilderness program that's left in Oregon went bananas over this, saying it would completely shut them down. And I said, 'Why? Just tell the truth about what you're doing. But that isn't what they do.'"

Hilton said before she entered into the "troubled teen" system, she never had taken any medication, aside from a Tylenol or Advil. "But when I got there, every single morning and every single afternoon and night, they would have us all line up and give us a cup full of all these pills. I had no idea what anything was. I didn't even talk to a proper doctor there,  so  I  don't  even  know  how  they  came  up  with  it.  And  I  just  immediately  would  feel  so  dizzy,  and  everybody  around  me  was  just  like  zombies  and  falling  asleep  everywhere,  and  then  you  would  get  punished  for  falling  asleep.  And  I  just  started  not  remembering  things."

One  day,  Hilton  began hiding the  pills she was given under  her tongue,  and  then  put  it  into  a  Kleenex  and  put  it  in  the  trash.

"One  of  the  kids  found  it  and  told  on  me  because  they  reward  the  children  for  telling  on  each  other, and from that moment, they locked me in solitary confinement," Hilton explained.

"Everybody sees the connection here, right?" Papantonio asked the room of attorneys. "If there's any medication being given to these kids,  I  don't  care  if  there's  a  doctor  on  the  facility.  If  there's  any  medication  being  given this  kid,  you  have  a  lead.  The  lead  goes  all  the  way  back  to  malpractice.  Somebody,  somebody  in  the  pecking  order, made the decision it was okay to give these kids medication."

Hilton added another layer to the issue of medical malpractice. 

"When you talk to a therapist, it's supposed to be someone that you can trust who is going to keep confidential, and that's not the case at all. Anything you would tell them, they would then say in the group in front of all the other kids, humiliate you, and even to this day, I've had so many calls, emails, people reaching out to me, that the people who work at these places are talking about me all the time, which again is a violation of HIPAA," Hilton said.

Hilton entered the "troubled teen" industry system as a teen when she was sneaking out of the house, going to clubs, and getting bad grades. 

"I  had  undiagnosed  ADHD  at  the  time,  which  no  one  was  talking  about.  So  they  couldn't  understand  why  I  couldn't  focus  in  school,  but  nobody  knew  the  reason  why," Hilton said. "And  I  was  punished  for  that.  And  I  didn't  deserve  to  be  there.  None  of  these  kids  deserve  to  be  in  these  places."  

Papantonio said his sights are set on bringing the "troubled teen" industry down.

"It won't be business as usual," Papantonio said. "The medical malpractice of this hasn’t even been touched. I've developed novel legal attacks on some of the biggest projects of the country all the way from tobacco, to opioids, to human trafficking…each one, we’ve always gone in with an unusual, novel approach," Papantonio said.

 "Once  we  unlock  that  methodology,  we're  all  going  to  be  able  to  use  it  in  every  state," Papantonio added.  

Paris' advocacy efforts have led to widespread public awareness of this industry, policy changes at the state level, philanthropic endeavors, and media projects like "Trapped in Treatment." Currently, she is actively advocating for the passage of the Federal Accountability for Congregate Care Act. As a natural extension of these efforts, Paris is taking her passion to end "troubled teen" industry abuse to the legal community.

 The Levin Papantonio Rafferty law firm, founder and host of Mass Torts Made Perfect, has developed a "troubled teen" industry division within its practice to hold accountable facilities that abuse, neglect, and exploit vulnerable children and teens who have been put under their care. In September 2023, LPR Attorney Caleb Cunningham and two other attorneys filed multiple lawsuits against Alabama state officials, alleging they discriminate against children with disabilities by placing them in residential centers where they were segregated and abused.

"We are excited to have Paris Hilton help us shine a light on this industry and these abuses," Cunningham said. "We are also joined by Unsilenced, a national advocacy group of survivors of this industry. Together we can hit these companies where it hurts."