In 2015, Kamala Harris, then the Attorney General of California, filed second-degree murder charges against Jerrod Menz, the president of an accredited in-patient drug treatment center. Five years earlier, a client died only hours after being admitted to a company facility. 

The local coroner ruled the untimely death occurred from natural causes. However, a spiteful local competitor found an ally in an employee of a San Francisco area hedge fund shorting the company's publicly traded stock. Were the major players in the case misusing inside information to profit from the stock's rapid decline? Did Kamala Harris or her husband, whose law firm performed legal work for a potential acquisition target of the company, profit in any way? 

Jerrod Menz reveals how he believes Kamala Harris played a role in murdering an American success story.

Jerrod Menz started a drug addiction treatment center in 2004. Eleven years later, his company had merged with another, forming American Addiction Centers. In 2015, then California Attorney General Kamala Harris filed second-degree murder charges against Menz and his former company over a client's untimely death. Here's the story of how a competitor, a hedge fund company, and a rising political figure targeted and damaged a publically traded company.

Like his mother, at an early age Jerrod Menz found himself going down the slippery slope of drug and alcohol addiction. Fortunately, he participated in a 12-step program and was sober by the age of 21.

Menz arrived in California to work alongside his mother in her drug treatment program. After working for other treatment facilities, he opened A Better Tomorrow Treatment Centers, a drug addiction treatment center in Temecula, California. During the early years, Menz encountered a local competitor, Charles "Rocky" Hill, who sought to put Menz and his company out of business. 

Jerrod Menz started A Better Tomorrow Treatment Centers in 2004 with one facility and 12 beds in Temecula, California.

Like his mother, Menz was able to walk away from his own addiction to alcohol and drugs to help others. In a few short years, the company had multiple drug and alcohol in-patient centers with about 70 beds. 

However, Menz's aggressive business tactics and desire to grow his company attracted the ire of a neighboring competitor, Charles "Rocky" Hill. 

Hill had tried for years to draw attention to Menz and A Better Tomorrow Treatment Centers. Following the untimely and sudden death of a client in 2010, Hill connected with Deputy Attorney General Hardy Gold, who served under the California Attorney General, Kamala Harris.

For the next few years, these two men would conspire to build a murder case against Menz and destroy his company. 

Charles "Rocky" Hill, a local competitor, had spent years trying to put Jerrod Menz and his drug addiction treatment companies out of business. After a client died soon after checking themselves into one of Menz's facilities in July of 2010, Hill developed a close relationship with California Deputy Attorney General Hardy Gold. Five years later, when a San Francisco area hedge fund started shorting the company's publically traded shares and publishing information critical of company practices, a trio waging war against Menz emerged. Attorney General Kamala Harris and her office charged Menz and others with second-degree murder over the client's death. Although Harris was unsuccessful in prosecuting the case, Menz and American Addiction Centers would suffer financially while Kingsford Capital made millions watching the company's stock plummet. The question remains, did anyone associated with the Attorney General's office profit from the fall of the company's stock?   

How did Kamala Harris murder an American success story? 

The final episode demonstrates how the forces attempting to destroy Jerrod Menz and his drug addiction treatment centers damaged his reputation and drove the company's stock price into the ground. 

California Attorney General Kamala Harris, and her Deputy AG, Hardy Gold, filed second-degree murder charges in July of 2015 against Menz, four others, and his company. Months later, a California judge dismissed the murder charge against Menz. However, a San Francisco area hedge fund's strategy to short the stock drove the publically-traded company's share price from the mid-40s to the mid-teens. American Addiction Centers is still operating; however, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in June of 2020. This is how Kamala Harris murdered an American success story.