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Chilling details of the alleged ‘system of terror’ inside the Arkansas mental health unit run by hulking tattooed psychiatrist Brian Hyatt can be revealed by DailyMail.com for the first time – as the number of ‘victims’ filing law suits has ballooned to nearly 100.
These include staff using physical and verbal intimidation so frequently that at one point a middle-aged man suffered broken ribs when body slammed to the floor by two men – one of whom is a 6ft 8in former NBA player – because he did not want to be strip searched.
Hyatt is accused of holding patients captive for weeks despite them not needing treatment as part of a claimed $800,000 insurance scam.
Aaron Cash, the attorney pulling together lawsuits, told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview: ‘It was like a system, a system to break you down.
Psychiatrist Brian Hyatt ran a ‘system of terror’ inside an Arkansas hospital as part of an alleged insurance scam
The heavily tattooed psychiatrist was caught on surveillance camera interacting with patients just 17 times in a 45-day stretch
Former Detroit Piston Isaiah Morris was one of the hospital guards who allegedly intimidated patients. He is pictured on a trading card from the 1992-93 NBA season
Attorney Aaron Cash (left) is leading the fight against Hyatt and the Northwest Medical Center. Former patient Clyde Hunnicutt said he was given unnecessary medication. ‘It was horrible – I could hardly walk afterwards,’ he said
‘This system of terror and forced sedation suppressed everyone’s ability to reach out and speak up. Many of the staff were large men and there was violence.’
Nearly 100 former patients of the Northwest Medical Center’s Behavioral Health Unit in Springdale, Arkansas, are now filing lawsuits against wealthy 50-year-old Hyatt, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The number has rocketed from the 26 previously disclosed.
One, former law enforcement official Clyde Hunnicutt, 53, told us exclusively of the regime inside the unit, adding: ‘Hyatt threatened to get me jailed if I didn’t agree to be sedated and then have me brought back to him.
‘In fact, I would rather have been in the county lock-up and stayed there. But in the end I agreed to the shot.
‘It was horrible – I could hardly walk afterwards.
‘One time I heard a man a couple of rooms away from me being beaten for calling one of the staff a name. There were sounds of flesh smacking flesh.’
DailyMail.com has obtained the lawsuits, which also cite Northwest Medical Center as an additional defendant.
They start by saying: ‘This case arises from the concerted actions of the above-named defendants to prey on, coerce, abuse, and unlawfully hold patients… in order to fraudulently bill their private health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, or other applicable insurance coverage for alleged care and treatment that was not provided.’
Cash told us: ‘I believe they were running a scheme to hold people as long as possible and bill their insurance. Then kick them out and immediately fill the bed with someone else.’
His legal paperwork alleges false imprisonment, assault and battery, medical malpractice, fraud, outrageous conduct which causes harm to someone else and conspiracy.
Dr. Brian Hyatt, 50, faces lawsuits from up to 100 patients who claim they were held for days, and sometimes weeks, in his unit at Northwest Medical Center.
Hyatt and his wife Angela live in this palatial $1.6million home in a gated community in Rogers, Arkansas, where they drive vehicles valued at more than $270,000 when new
Former NBA player Isaiah Morris, 54, (left) and one-time colleague Collyn Harlan, 28, have both been charged with felony counts of abuse. They are pictured in their arrest mug shots
Heavily tattooed Hyatt, reported to be 6ft 6ins tall and a mixed martial arts (MMA) fan, quit as chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board amid the initial fraud accusations and was ‘abruptly terminated’ from his position as the hospital unit’s medical director.
He is being investigated by Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin over the insurance scam claims and is also facing a federal law enforcement probe.
But a DailyMail.com investigation reveals the under-fire psychiatrist is still visiting his private clinic in the nearby city of Rogers, close to the palatial $1.6million country club home he shares with wife Angela.
His black Mercedes G63 SUV – which start at $180,000 new – was parked outside the office of Pinnacle Premier Psychiatry on Wednesday last week. Meanwhile the couple’s other vehicle, a white 2023 BMW 740i costing at least $96,695, was being driven by Angela earlier this week.
Indeed, local sources who have spoken to DailyMail.com say Hyatt frequently ‘brags’ about the blacked out Mercedes.
The couple bought their near 5,000 sq ft, four bed, five bath home for $869,000 in 2018 when they moved from Arkansas state capital Little Rock. According to public records, they had a $781,231 loan, but refinanced in July 2022 borrowing a much reduced $286,000.
Hyatt and the Northwest Medical Center deny any malpractice. Under his leadership, the unit bed numbers went from 25 to 75 and Medicaid and Medicare claims rocketed, earning the psychiatrist $1,367 a day, according to an affidavit from Arkansas AG Griffin.
From January 2019 to June 2022, Medicaid paid out more than $800,000 to Hyatt’s unit.
Yet state investigators revealed 45 days of surveillance footage from the hospital showed the psychiatrist only entered a patient’s room or interacted with one 17 times – for less than a total or 10 minutes.
Both Hyatt and his wife Angela drive high end vehicles. His black Mercedes G63 SUV – which start at $180,000 new – was parked outside the office of Pinnacle Premier Psychiatry while she was seen tooling around town in a white 2023 BMW 740i costing at least $96,695 new
Hyatt and his wife Angela, 49, took their son for a haircut in their hometown of Rogers, Arkansas, last week
Hyatt stands at 6ft 6in and hired staff even taller than him to keep order in the psychiatric unit, claims attorney Aaron Cash
Hyatt mocked and taunted Cash in an email exchange when the attorney enquired about a patient he said was in the doctor’s care
The psychiatrist is also accused in the filings of telling some patients they could leave the unit if they agreed to continue indefinite treatment at his Pinnacle clinic.
Attorney Cash – who is now working with four other lawyers to process the ballooning number of lawsuits – claims all patients were held under a ‘culture of violence that was pushed by Dr Hyatt talking about his MMA training’.
Under Arkansas law, patients can be held for 72 hours if they are assessed as a risk to themselves or others. But after that they must consent to stay or there must be a court order detaining them for longer.
Cash maintain patients were forcibly sedated, intimidated and generally riled by abusive staff into situations that forced them to remain in the unit for up to two weeks – often without any legal authority.
If patients asked to leave they would arbitrarily have days added to their stay, he said. If they tried to summon help by using a public phone in the hallway, there would be repercussions, he added.
‘I have met more than 100 former patients and it is striking to me the similarities in their stories,’ Cash told DailyMail.com.
‘They are all claiming false imprisonment, some are claiming they were assaulted physically – some claim when they asked to leave they were simply injected with a sedative, or threatened with more time.
‘Some are alleging staff listened to phone calls and if there were trigger words like “get me out” or “attorney” phone access was shut off. And that was the only access to the outside world, because it is a lockdown unit.’
Patients were handled by doctors, nurses and mental health technicians, who are not medically certified. Cash alleged Hyatt surrounded himself in the unit with techs who were intimidatingly large and loyal to him.
‘All the patients have told me there was a culture of fear, a culture of aggression where the tech would instigate a fight by poking fun at someone to rile them,’ he said.
‘And then in response tackle that person and restrain them, calling for a sedative shot.
‘I’m 6ft 3ins and these techs would tower over me and outweigh me by 100lbs. I’d be intimidated. Many of our clients are women and the intimidation factor for them was through the roof.
‘For the ones who needed help, they were worse when they got out. For the ones who never had a mental health issue ever, they now have PTSD. These people were not treated, they were assaulted.
‘Some even found themselves sedated and taken to the hospital floor where they house prison inmates. So you wake up and find yourself surrounded by prisoners because you asked to leave the unit.’
Of Hyatt’s patient visits, Cash said: ‘He did see some patients on occasion and when he did he’d have two techs taller than him standing behind him staring at you while he berated you.’
Two ‘techs’ are facing charges over the alleged body slamming incident in March, 2022.
One is Isaiah Morris, 54, who played 25 games for the Detroit Pistons in the NBA in the early 90s. He was listed during his NBA days as 6ft 8in and weighing 229lb. The other is 28-year-old Collyn Harlan.
Hyatt was named the medical director of the behavioral health unit of Northwest Medical Center in Springdale, Arkansas, in January 2018. The hospital has denied any malpractice, despite abruptly firing him
Hyatt is seen on security camera entering the Northwest Medical Center in March 2022. He was later terminated and he stepped down from his position as chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board
In documents obtained by DailyMail.com. Morris is charged with two felony counts of abuse and Harlan one. They face trial in August.
Morris, whose court paperwork says he found another job working in a pool store, ‘purposely abused an adult endangered person and the abuse cause physical injury including rib fractures,’ said the criminal complaint. He is also accused of slapping the victim across the face.
Patient Hunnicutt, from Springdale, was taken into the unit after attempting a drug suicide in February 2021. His wife Joy called 911 and he said he was totally compliant when he arrived at the hospital on a Friday.
The following day he hoped he could leave as he was feeling better. Dr Hyatt, accompanied by two mental health techs, came into the room he was sharing with another man.
‘He was nice to the other guy. But he was definitely not nice to me,’ said Hunnicutt, a former adult protective services investigator and ex-probation parole officer.
‘He just said, I’m putting a 72-hour hold on you. Then he got another guy alongside the two techs, a big one, really mean who liked to fight. From my previous experience in law enforcement I knew I wasn’t going to successfully defend myself against the four of them.
‘So I knew it was pointless to fight. I’m a big guy myself but I felt very intimidated at that point.’
He added: ‘We went to the 4th floor where they keep the worst of the worst. Dr Hyatt immediately threatened me with incarceration if I gave his staff any trouble.
‘They wanted to give me a shot, I said there is no reason to give me a shot, I’m not being verbally or physically aggressive with anyone. I don’t want to take the shot or a chemical restraint. That is used for someone who is out of control.
‘Dr Hyatt said if you don’t take this shot we’re going to make you – and if that happens I am going to ring Springdale police, we are going to have you transported to county jail, you can sit in county for a while and then you can come back.’
Hunnicutt relented and was sedated despite not being told what drug was being used. The shot made his eyes roll in the back of his head and he couldn’t focus or walk properly. Next day he got another – then a third the following day.
Excerpts from court papers claim Hyatt told patients they could only leave the hospital if they agreed to continue outpatient treatment at his private practice and that a female patient was forced to have a ‘booty shot’ of sedative
‘This was not therapeutic in any way. There was no purpose in me being there. It felt punitive rather than therapeutic,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘Eventually I was there 12 days. When I went in I weighed 250lbs, when I came out I was 237lbs, so I lost 13lbs in 12 days.
‘I told the doctor I didn’t want to be there. I told a social worker I didn’t want to be there. At one point I was on the phone discussing hiring an attorney to get me out.
‘The staff discovered this and put me on phone restriction. They told me if I didn’t ditch the lawyer idea they would take me to court and get a seven-day commit on me, and once that was once they would get a 10-day involuntary commit, then once that was up they would get a 45-day commit on me.
‘They said I might make it out by May.
‘And so I resolved myself at that point to just fake it till I make it. To stop asking to leave, to stop asking for anxiety pills and to go along to the group therapy sessions – to comply in order to eventually leave.
‘They finally released me because I kept my head down. But now I’m traumatized by it. There is my life before that event and there is my life after that event. I’m in therapy, I take a bunch more medications that I used to.’
Hunnicutt described the moment he was released. ‘My wife met me and we embraced, a long embrace, I didn’t want to let go, I’d missed her so much. But I was terrified they would suddenly change their minds and bring me back.
‘So I whispered to Joy, let’s get out of here. I literally wanted to get the hell off that property.’
In one of the court filings, a woman patient said she was held against her will for 13 days without any reason and received no legitimate treatment. She had voluntarily checked herself in for observation because she was considering a change of medication.
She was put on an involuntary hold for an initial 72 hours and saw no doctor for the first two days.
Willian VanWhy, left, was allegedly locked in the psych unit for four days last year against his will, before his husband, Cameron Tryon, and his lawyer got a court order demanding his release
Former NBA player Isaiah Morris is said to have ‘purposely abused an adult endangered person and the abuse caused physical injury including rib fractures,’ according to court papers
‘Plaintiff also noticed, though, that no other patients in the unit seemed to be getting any treatment, either, and she became increasingly concerned about repeated instances of verbal abuse against patients by orderlies/techs and other staff,’ said her filing.
‘After more days had passed and she was still being held against her will, Plaintiff began escalating her requests to leave…. Once Plaintiff began asking questions about her diagnoses and treatment plan (or lack thereof) and her rights to leave as a voluntary admission, she was approached by a nurse and orderlies with a syringe and told that she was going to get a sedative injection referred to as a “booty shot.”
‘Plaintiff asked why she was being given the shot, but the nurse and orderlies refused to answer. They told Plaintiff that if she did not agree to get the shot she would be held down by the orderlies and forced to take it.
‘Fearing that she would be physically assaulted and injured by the orderlies Plaintiff allowed the nurse to pull down her pants and give her the injection, which quickly caused her to become lightheaded, groggy, and fall asleep.’
Ironically, one of attorney Cash’s clients who is filing a claim against Dr Hyatt and the hospital is now being sued himself for refusing to pay his medical bill.
I knew it was pointless to fight. I’m a big guy myself but I felt very intimidated at that point
Former patient Clyde Hunnicutt
The lawyer got William VanWhy released from the unit in 2022 with a court order that was delivered by a sheriff’s deputy, who turned up at the hospital and escorted the former patient to freedom.
VanWhy was billed $14,452.57 and after insurance the lawsuit demands he pay $680 of that.
It was during Cash’s bid to free another client now also suing the psychiatrist – Karla Adrian-Caceres – that he ended up in a bizarre email exchange with Dr Hyatt. And that ironically set him on a path to representing the now flood of patients filing cases.
In the exchange, seen by DailyMail.com, the doctor mocks the attorney over his schooling and office building. Dr Hyatt taunts: ‘Don’t email me again or I will be forced to file a motion and will ask for a county jail (sic)
‘PS – I really like the repurposed dentist’s office you’re working out of.’’
Cash told DailyMail.com: ‘He made fun of the school I went to and my office building and so I wondered, who is this man and why is he treating me this way?
‘I’m a lawyer and know people sometimes don’t like lawyers, but how is he treating his patients?
‘So we started digging and former employees started coming forward, former patients started coming forward. And here we are now.’
