Presley Gerber, the son of supermodel Cindy Crawford who spoke eloquently about his struggles with addiction and mental health, entered the mansion-like sober living home in an elite section of Santa Monica on Saturday night.
The next morning, he was found dead of what police said was a drug overdose.
His death has brought much mourning as well as questions about how he could overdose on drugs while inside the luxury facility.
Santa Monica Police are investigating the source of the drugs he had taken, while the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner is awaiting toxicology results before making a finding on the cause of death. It comes amid growing scrutiny of the industry.
Beyond being the site of the death, it’s unclear what role the Resolutions Living facility plays in the investigation. The sober living home is owned by psychologist Reza Nabavi and his wife, clinical psychologist Maryam Akbar, who together purchased the property in the wealthy Northeast neighborhood of Santa Monica for $5.8 million in 2021.
Prior to entering the treatment industry, Nabavi struggled with substance use issues himself.
He was charged with felony drug possession after Oakland Police found him asleep in a car with a gun, meth and a 15-year-old girl in 2002 — an incident that later became a roadblock on his path to obtaining a psychology license.
He went on to work 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 revealed that the celebrity rehab had been cited by state regulators for providing medical services outside the scope of its licenses and was facing four consumer protection lawsuits alleging predatory business practices. A search of lawsuits against Promises did not list Nabavi as a defendant, and there is no indication in public records that he was involved in those allegations.
Details are unclear on what safety practices were 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 doesn’t offer treatment on site. The medical arm of Nabavi’s 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 is providing any services that would require a state license after receiving a complaint about the sober living home Wednesday, according to department spokesperson Anthony Cava.
Nabavi, 50, did not return several messages for comment and has not addressed his history, Gerber’s death or specifics about the sober living home.
Nabavi’s initial effort to become a psychologist was denied in 2004 by the California Psychology Board because of two prior misdemeanor convictions for drug possession.
In 2002, he was found in a car with five “zip lock baggies containing methamphetamine,” 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 ruling. He was arrested on Oakland’s 5th Street, a place the patrol officers described as known for “frequent narcotic and prostitution activity.”
Nabavi was charged with two counts of felony drug possession with a firearm. He pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of misdemeanor drug possession and was sentenced to 36 months’ 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 in place of jail time.
The California Psychology Board approved Nabavi’s license in 2006, placing him on probationary registration for five years with requirements that he undergo substance use treatment and complete random drug testing.
In 2008, Nabavi convinced the state psychology board to end his probation early, saying that he had been clean and sober since May 2002, spent 80 hours that year in the Proposition 36 drug program and gotten a master’s degree and doctorate, and that his practice concentrated on drug and alcohol addiction.
Nabavi and Akhbar purchased the Resolutions Living home, which is 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 operate Resolutions Therapeutic Services, a licensed mental health treatment facility, in a medical office building 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 as a result of 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 court.
While Resolutions Therapeutic Services is a licensed treatment facility, the Resolutions Living home operates in a regulatory gray area and is not authorized to provide medical care.
There is no state agency in charge of monitoring sober living homes, which are protected under state and federal law as residences of people with disabilities.
Repeated attempts to establish regulatory standards for these facilities have been unsuccessful. At least 25 bills affecting sober living homes were introduced in the state Legislature between 1998 and 2016, but none became law.
This legislative cycle, Assemblymember Laurie Davies (R-Laguna Niguel) introduced Assembly Bill 423, which would have required that business-operated recovery homes register with the State Department of Health Care Services. However, the proposal failed to advance in the legislature.
Davies said she was frustrated that the fairly straightforward bill, which would have enabled the state to track the number and location of recovery homes, did not gain traction.
“We can’t get an accurate count of how many recovery homes even exist in California,” she said. “And you cannot regulate what you can’t see.”
Part of the pushback to increased oversight probably stems from the fact that the Department of Health Care Services is understaffed, she said, pointing to the fact that it can take more than a year to investigate complaints about licensed substance use treatment facilities.
Pete Nielsen, president of California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals, has advocated for creating a recovery home certification process in California.
“Today, there is still no statewide standard for what qualifies as a recovery residence, no consistent consumer protections for residents, and no objective framework for funding decisions,” he wrote in a blog post. “That vacuum has fueled controversy rather than solutions.”
Speaking generally, Nielsen supports using standards set by the National Alliance for Recovery Residences to create a California recovery residence certification — a framework that he notes has already been employed successfully by other states.
Gerber had entered the Resolutions Living facility in Santa Monica the night before his death, police said. It’s unclear whether he was already an outpatient receiving medical care at Resolutions Therapeutic Services or entirely new to the couple’s programs.
Santa Monica police received a call reporting a cardiac arrest and another call for an overdose at the home. Officers arrived at Resolutions Living about 9:35 a.m. Sunday, a law enforcement 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 demise and how he obtained the narcotics or prescriptions that led to his death.
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