Inside the understated, ultra-luxurious home where Cindy Crawford’s son, Presley Gerber, died

Presley Gerber, the son of model Cindy Crawford who has spoken eloquently about his struggles with drug addiction and mental health, entered the mansion-like sober living home in an elite Santa Monica neighborhood on Saturday evening.

The next morning, he was found dead in what police said was a drug overdose.

His death sparked much mourning as well as questions about how he could have overdosed on drugs while inside the luxury establishment.

Santa Monica police are investigating the source of the drugs he took, while the Los Angeles County medical examiner awaits toxicology results before reaching a conclusion on the cause of death. This comes amid increasing scrutiny of the industry.

Beyond the fact that this is the location of the death, it is unclear what role Resolutions Living plays in the investigation. The sober house is owned by psychologist Reza Nabavi and his wife, clinical psychologist Maryam Akbar, who together purchased the property in the wealthy northeast Santa Monica neighborhood for $5.8 million in 2021.

Before entering the treatment industry, Nabavi struggled with substance abuse issues himself.

He was charged with drug possession after Oakland police found him sleeping in a car with a gun, meth and a 15-year-old girl in 2002 — an incident that later became an obstacle on his path to obtaining a psychology license.

He then worked as director of family services at the now-defunct Promises Treatment Center in Malibu from June 2006 to May 2011, according to his LinkedIn. In 2007, a Times investigation found that the celebrity drug rehab company had been cited by state regulators for providing medical services outside the scope of its licenses and was the subject of four consumer protection lawsuits alleging predatory business practices. A search of the Promises lawsuits did not list Nabavi as a defendant, and there is no indication in public records that he was involved in these allegations.

Details are unclear about the safety practices in place at the sober living home where Gerber died.

Resolutions Living is not subject to state regulatory oversight because it operates as a recovery home and does not offer on-site treatment. The medical arm of Nabavi and Akbar’s treatment program, Resolutions Therapeutic Services, is housed in a separate facility down the street.

The California Department of Health Services is investigating whether Resolutions Living provides services that would require a state license after receiving a complaint about the sober living home Wednesday, according to department spokesman Anthony Cava.

Nabavi, 50, did not respond to several messages for comment and did not address her story, Gerber’s death or the details of her sober life in the house.

Nabavi’s initial efforts to become a psychologist were denied in 2004 by the California Psychology Board due to two prior misdemeanor convictions for drug possession.

In 2002, he was found in a car with five “ziplock bags of meth,” a .357-caliber handgun and a teenage girl who told police she was under the influence of narcotics, according to records referenced in a state psychology board decision. He was arrested on 5th Street in Oakland, an area that patrol officers described as being known for “frequent drug and prostitution activity.”

Nabavi was charged with two counts of drug possession with a firearm. He pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of drug possession and was sentenced to 36 months of probation.

About a month later, Oakland police arrested him with methamphetamine and a glass pipe. After six days in jail, he again pleaded no contest to drug possession under Proposition 36, which allows people convicted of certain drug offenses to receive treatment instead of prison time.

The California Psychology Board approved Nabavi’s license in 2006, placing him on probation for five years with the requirement that he undergo drug treatment and complete random drug tests.

In 2008, Nabavi convinced the state psychology board to end his probation early, saying he had been clean and sober since May 2002, had spent 80 hours that year in the Proposition 36 drug program and had earned a master’s degree and a doctorate, and that his practice focused on drug and alcohol abuse.

Nabavi and Akhbar purchased the Resolutions Living home, valued today at $7.7 million, with seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a library and a movie theater in 2021. They then purchased a neighboring property at 1010 Berkeley St. for $4.45 million in 2022.

The couple operates Resolutions Therapeutic Services, a licensed mental health treatment facility, out of a doctor’s office about a mile away.

In 2020, Nabavi was sued by a former Resolutions Therapeutic Services patient who alleged that he was denied $46,353 in insurance benefits due to the company’s negligence and was asked to pay the company more than $20,000 to cover the cost of urine tests. The plaintiff moved to dismiss the suit the following year, and his attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why the suit was dropped or whether a settlement was reached outside of court.

Although Resolutions Therapeutic Services is a licensed treatment facility, Resolutions Living operates in a regulatory gray area and is not licensed to provide medical care.

There is no state agency charged with monitoring sobriety homes, which are protected under state and federal law as residences for people with disabilities.

Repeated attempts to establish regulatory standards for these facilities have failed. At least 25 bills affecting sobriety homes were introduced in the state Legislature between 1998 and 2016, but none passed.

During this legislative cycle, Assemblymember Laurie Davies (R-Laguna Niguel) introduced Assembly Bill 423, which would have required corporate-run convalescent homes to register with the state Department of Health Services. However, the proposal did not advance through the legislature.

Davies said she was frustrated that the fairly simple bill, which would have allowed the state to track the number and locations of nursing homes, had not gained traction.

“We can’t get an accurate count of how many nursing homes exist in California,” she said. “And you can’t regulate what you can’t see.”

Part of the resistance to increased oversight likely stems from the fact that the Department of Health Services is understaffed, she said, pointing to the fact that it can take more than a year to investigate complaints about licensed drug treatment centers.

Pete Nielsen, president of the California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals, advocated for the creation of a certification process for recovery homes in California.

“Today, there is still no statewide standard defining what constitutes a recovery residence, no consistent consumer protections for residents, and no objective framework for financing decisions,” he wrote in a blog post. “This void has fueled controversy rather than solutions. »

Generally speaking, Nielsen supports using the standards established by the National Alliance for Recovery Residences to create a recovery residence certification in California – a framework that, he notes, has already been used successfully by other states.

Gerber had walked into Resolutions Living in Santa Monica the night before his death, police said. It is unclear whether he was already an outpatient receiving medical care at Resolutions Therapeutic Services or whether he was entirely new to the couple’s programs.

Santa Monica Police received a call reporting a cardiac arrest and another call regarding an overdose at the home. Officers arrived at Resolutions Living around 9:35 a.m. Sunday, a police source told The Times.

Santa Monica police say there is no indication of foul play at this time, but they are also investigating Gerber’s death and how he obtained the narcotics or prescriptions that led to his death.