Chief Sanchez Sued

Santa Barbara Police Chief Cam Sanchez is named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed on October 29 by Mission Terrace convalescent home, which alleges Sanchez and his wife’s family didn’t pay the home for housing his wife’s mother for almost two years. The lawsuit, which alleges there is an unpaid balance of $133,964.77, plus interest, also names Arminda Gonzales, Daniel Gonzales Jr., Daniel Gonzales Sr., and Sanchez’s wife, Guadalupe Olivia Gonzales Sanchez.

The complaint states that the family admitted the police chief’s mother-in-law, Arminda Gonzales, to the home on December 27, 2007, and signed a contract promising to pay. She was under the home’s care until September 24, 2009, when the family took her out of the home. While there were multiple requests for payment, no payment was ever made, according to the suit, which was filed on behalf of Mission Terrace by Lawrence Conlan of the Cappello and Noël law firm. Conlan didn’t return a call requesting comment. Steve McGuire, an L.A.-based attorney representing Sanchez and his wife, gave this statement: “Chief Sanchez and his wife deny all the allegations that have been made against them, and we intend to prove that they have no liability for all or any part of the amount demanded in the complaint.”

The suit alleges breach of contract, breach of oral contract, and unjust enrichment among other things. Sanchez has been named in lawsuits in the past, including two related to unpaid medical bills. They have since been resolved.