TEQUESTA, Fla. — A community is calling for change at a facility that cares for children in need of mental health treatment.
People in Martin County are voicing concerns over SandyPines Residential Treatment Center in Tequesta costing taxpayers money and impacting public safety.
A review of law enforcement records reveal what the sheriff considers to be “constant” calls for service, the cost of which is adding up for taxpayers.
On a Sunday afternoon in November, a SandyPines staff member called 911.
“Six running? Six runners! Oh my goodness…,” she can be heard telling the dispatcher in the first of three calls, of which WPTV obtained recordings.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office responded on the ground and in the air to look for what turned out to be seven kids that had run toward an opening in the fence while playing football outside the facility, according to the agency’s report.
Region Martin County
Neighbors say commotion around this treatment facility is nothing new
Footage from MCSO’s helicopter, which assisted in the search, shows deputies on the ground working with SandyPines employees to locate the alleged runaways. All of the kids were found safe, and nearby.
SandyPines sits at the end of SE Tequesta Terrace, with residential neighborhoods next to its large, wooded property. Christopher Weyandt is one of the facility’s closest neighbors, and he says he’s grown accustomed to the commotion at SandyPines.
“[It’s] like normal that something’s happened down there or somebody got out or whatever,” Weyandt told WPTV the day of the attempted escape in November.
WPTV spoke with multiple neighbors who declined to be interviewed, but echoed the sentiment that if they hear law enforcement activity nearby, they assume it’s connected to SandyPines.
SandyPines provides inpatient mental health services to children. According to Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek, patients come from all over the country. Some are ordered by a court, he said, but many are not.
MCSO’s log of calls to SandyPines reveals the attempted escape on Nov. 10 was the 349th time in two years that Martin County deputies responded to SandyPines.
That averages out to a call to law enforcement nearly every other day.
“That's a lot of calls for service,” Budensiek acknowledged in an interview with WPTV.
“I would cringe having to call the Martin County Sheriff's Office, because basically, you could tell in their face they're like, 'Wow, we're coming out to SandyPines again,’” said Barbara Casto, a nurse who used to work at SandyPines.
Casto stopped working there in 2022, pointing to chronic understaffing and safety issues.
“My husband started to really be fearful for me,” Casto said. “You have these kids that go off and they're jumping the fence, or punching staff, or spitting at staff, or fighting amongst themselves. You have to get help.”
Budensiek said the number of escapes from SandyPines has dramatically decreased over the past two years, since the night of Jan. 20, 2023.
Budensiek was Martin County’s chief deputy at the time, and described arriving at a scene that was “utter chaos.”
According to the incident report from that night, “approximately 50” of the facility’s roughly 130 residents rioted.
“We were hauling deputies out that were hurt and children out that were hurt,” Budensiek said.
Region Martin County
8 caught after 'riot' leads to escape at SandyPines treatment facility
Deputies had to track down eight kids who had escaped the facility during the riot. Eleven kids were ultimately arrested as a result of that incident, according to the report.
Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration investigated after the riot. The agency’s inspection report details how the incident started.
AHCA’s report describes a resident “lying on the floor rolling around,” triggering a response from seven staff members. The resident then “got up and stated he was upset with his roommate and was ‘faking’ the whole incident.”
While staff were responding, the report says other residents began kicking and banging on windows and doors with furniture. Another resident pulled the fire alarm. Amid the chaos, another resident took an employee’s badge, which was used to open exterior doors, according to the report.
AHCA inspectors found the facility was “below minimum staffing requirements” at the time, and that employees who were there were “observed on video camera idly standing by during the emergency crisis situation.”
SandyPines was ultimately fined $13,600 in a settlement with AHCA, according to a final order following the investigation.
After the riot, Martin County deputies met with SandyPines administration.
“We told them, ‘If you continue down this path, if we have to keep responding, we're going to charge you,’” Budensiek said. "At that point, they came here to the Martin County Sheriff's Office. They sat down. We came up with a collective plan.”
Budensiek said that plan did lead to improvements at SandyPines, including having more than one employee escort kids outside the building, and a new fence that was harder to climb.
While the escapes decreased, the calls for service have not, Budensiek said.
"We're responding to legitimate calls, illegitimate calls, and you kind of get the ‘little boy that cried wolf’ effect,” Budensiek said. “We don't know what we're dealing with, because we go so often, we don't know what's real.”
Budensiek couldn’t provide an exact dollar amount for each response — but said the cost to taxpayers is adding up, and so is its toll on neighbors.
"Our aviation unit’s down there, all of our southern county deputies are down there, our supervisor’s there. That's costing us thousands of dollars,” Budensiek said.
“I feel like there might be some more overhaul that needs to be done down there than trying to get a police officer sent down there all the time,” Weyandt said the day of November’s attempted escape.
Less than a month after that, a resident successfully escaped.
A Dec. 7 incident report describes a SandyPines resident who had gotten out and attempted to break into a nearby home by throwing a rock at a hurricane-impact window. The report notes that this was the second time this particular resident had escaped.
The resident was ultimately admitted to the hospital under Florida’s Baker Act for displaying suicidal behavior, according to the report.
"When the riot happened, they were understaffed and overpopulated. And so I think if they get appropriate staffing and they get a proportionate population, it can be a controllable scenario where the children can get the therapy they need, they can get the help they need, and our calls for service can be reduced,” Budensiek said.
“There's not a perfect solution. There's got to be a spot for children to get help. I get that," the sheriff continued. "But if we work together, we put the right amount of pressure, we get the right balance.”
WPTV asked SandyPines’s parent company, Universal Health Services, for an interview about the situation. A company spokeswoman provided a statement in response to emailed questions.
“Our facility continually reviews operating protocols and processes as part of our overall plan for continuous improvement,“ she wrote. “Our facility leadership team meets regularly with the Martin County Sheriff Department to ensure transparent communication and clear partnership in addressing/managing any incidents.”
In 2024, AHCA inspectors visited SandyPines five times as a result of complaints, according to the agency’s records. Its most recent inspection in October found no deficiencies.
Universal Health Services owns dozens of mental health treatment centers across the United States, including the Coral Shores facility, which accepts adults and is also in Martin County.
Budensiek said Coral Shores does not have the same problems as SandyPines, and they’ve been good partners to law enforcement as a Baker Act receiving facility.
