It was March 2024. Darey Susco had survived an abusive relationship, a suicide attempt and homelessness. After almost a year of “utter hell,” she was looking for a place where she could get back on her feet. “So, I called Lotus,” she said. “Zekie answered the phone.”

Lotus Recovery RVA is a for-profit recovery residence duplex near Downtown Richmond, certified and funded by the Virginia Association of Recovery Residences (VARR). The home is operated by 49-year-old Isiah (“Zekie”) Bagby — brother of VARR ally and state Sen. Lamont Bagby (D-Henrico).

Within minutes of answering Susco’s call that day, Bagby gave her the phone number for ProActive Behavioral Services (PBS) — a mental health and substance use treatment center in Richmond — and told her to ask for Keisha. “That’s all he said to me on the phone,” Susco said. “I didn’t even know who Keisha was or why I was calling her.”

By the end of the day, she said Keisha with PBS had collected her Medicaid information, enrolled her in a substance use intensive outpatient program (IOP) — even though Susco had 10 months of sustained recovery — and paid for her to move into Bagby’s recovery house. 

As is the case with the four other VARR-certified operators I’ve covered so far, former residents of Lotus Recovery told me Medicaid-funded IOP providers were paying Bagby in exchange for his referrals — a federal crime under multiple statutes.¹

Did a treatment center coach you on what to say when calling a crisis line? If so, please reach out to me.

When Susco arrived at the Lotus house, she quickly noticed the same thing everyone did on their first day.

According to seven residents who lived at the Lotus house between August 2023 and June 2024 — Susco, Brooke Sanislow, Braden Myers, Jennifer Adams and three others who asked not to be named — Bagby made himself at home on the women’s side of the duplex.

He took up a room on the men’s side, but he practically lived with the women — and he used the threat of eviction to keep other male residents out of his territory. 

Bagby walked around the women’s house in his pajama pants, Adams said. He stored his food in their refrigerator, cooked in their kitchen and did his laundry on their side.

“If Zekie was awake, he was in our living room,” Susco said. “He was on our couch in our house the whole time. … We had a beautiful living room, and you couldn’t sit in it and enjoy it. It was them two. They were playing house.”

“Them two” was Bagby and one of the female residents, who will be called Lauren. According to the same seven residents who lived at the Lotus house within the last year, Bagby entered a romantic relationship with Lauren — a woman in early recovery who was under pretrial supervision (followed by supervised probation) for a drug-related offense, with other charges pending in multiple jurisdictions. Lauren was initially court-ordered to live in a different VARR-certified recovery house, but court documents show she transferred to Lotus Recovery shortly thereafter, with no objection from her pretrial officer.²

Bagby was “pretending” to come over in the mornings, but he was actually spending the night with Lauren, Susco said. One morning, she caught Bagby coming out of Lauren’s bedroom. 

In the evenings, according to Adams, Bagby would still be laying on their couch as Lauren walked around in a nightgown.  

“None of us wanted to hang out in the living room,” said another former resident who will be called Chloé. “It just made us all uncomfortable.” 

At Christmas time, Bagby laid a pile of gifts at Lauren’s bedroom door — two bottles of Tiffany perfume, 10 outfits, five pairs of shoes and a kit of nail polish, Adams said. “You don’t buy stuff like that for a person that you’re, like, just a friend.”

Chloé listed many of the same items when she told me Bagby showered Lauren with gifts: $400 bottles of perfume, nail polish, clothes, lotion. He bought her dinner every day, Chloé said. “I really do think it’s like a sugar daddy, sugar baby situation.”

Six years ago, Bagby had a job making $8 an hour, food stamps and no assets, according to Henrico court documents. After a November 2018 arrest for possession of controlled substances, he was court-ordered to “treatment” at True Recovery RVA³ — a sober living organization that was owned by VARR’s then-president, David Rook. 

Bagby stayed in True Recovery housing for roughly the next three years. During that time, his brother Lamont, then representing Henrico County in the House of Delegates, supported VARR’s efforts to secure legislatively directed funding — to the tune of millions. (Sen. Bagby disputes the extent of his support, but we’ll get to those details later.)

Then, in late 2021, VARR fronted the taxpayer money for Isiah Bagby to launch the 22-bed Lotus Recovery house. For his first year in business, VARR provided a year’s rent ($90,288), a part-time staff position and an extra $64,822.⁴ Over the next two years, VARR awarded him another $195,202.⁵  For at least the last several months, VARR has also funded between two and three part-time employees for Bagby.⁶

These generous subsidies have given Bagby a free place to live and a constant stream of passive income generated from residents’ admin fees and weekly rent — which could easily exceed a full-time salary.⁷ 

Consequently, Bagby’s been living the life of a retired executive, according to former residents. He doesn’t work or participate in the recovery community, they say. He sleeps late every day, gambles, drives a Jaguar and wears expensive shoes and designer clothes.

With no known responsibilities aside from the Lotus duplex — which has been largely managed by other residents — Bagby reportedly stations himself at that house, basking in the women’s company, guarding his territory. 

For a limited time, Bagby allowed the men’s house manager to mingle on the women’s side, former residents told me. But he eventually rescinded that privilege, forbidding any other men to enter.

Bagby also kept Lauren on a tight leash, according to Chloé. “He was very, very, very controlling of (Lauren),” she said. “I’ve seen it.”

Adams concurred. “He would get mad every time (Lauren) would ride with me in the car,” she said. 

Like, he had it so bad to even if we actually talked on the phone, he would not let her talk to me. If he found out that I sent her a message or anything, it was like he thought that I was, I don’t know, interfering.

Despite living in the middle of Bagby and Lauren’s relationship, residents who spoke about it risked being evicted on the spot.

“Everybody who came there had the same assumption,” Adams said. “And if we actually said anything about it, anybody, they will automatically be dismissed for ‘causing drama.’” 

That happened “all the time,” according to Chloé. One of the residents Bagby evicted was her roommate — a resident who was maintaining her sobriety, paying her bills, “doing really well,” Chloé said. “All she did was just talk about that (relationship), because we all saw it.” 

In Brooke Sanislow’s words: “It’s in the air. Everybody knew about it.” 

One day, Chloé was smoking a cigarette near the back door when a male resident told her he saw Lauren coming out of Bagby’s room at 3 a.m. “And because he told me that, he got kicked out,” Chloé said. “They almost kind of pinned me against him and made it really uncomfortable.”

After witnessing these evictions play out, Adams tried to caution new residents who asked about the relationship: 

It was a couple of girls that actually came in and I told them, ‘Don’t say nothing. Whatever you’re thinking, don’t even speak on it. Just lose the thought because you will be put out this house.’

To find out who was “causing drama,” former residents say Bagby cultivated informants among them, creating an environment in which residents didn’t know who they could trust. 

In Adams’ words:

Whatever you talk about, it always got back to (Lauren) and Zekie. And then that actually ends up getting you kicked out because (other residents) will be real friendly with you just to get information out (of) you and then take it right back.

Bagby also had cameras monitoring the front and back porches, where residents congregated to smoke.

Former residents say Bagby used those cameras to monitor their conversations — just as Frank Bellanger allegedly did at Starfish Recovery & Wellness.

One night, Adams was standing at the bottom of the front porch steps when a new male resident approached her to ask about Bagby’s relationship with Lauren. 

While they were talking, Bagby came outside looking “pissed off,” Adams said, so she cut the conversation and walked back inside. Almost immediately, she said Bagby and Lauren confronted her.

(Bagby) was like, ‘So what were you all on the step talking about?’ (Lauren) was like, ‘I know you weren’t talking about us’ or whatever. And I was like, ‘What you talking about?’ She was like, ‘Zekie heard what you were saying. He heard your whole conversation.’ I said, ‘Honestly, if he would have heard it correctly, he would have heard me telling that guy don’t say nothing about it. Just don’t even worry about it. Whatever he heard, thinking he heard or anything, just leave it alone or whatever.’ And I almost got kicked out of the house that night. And that’s how I know that the cameras do have audio on it.

Earlier this year, a state court was scheduled to decide if it would revoke a suspended sentence from one of Lauren’s earlier charges, based on a 2022 probation violation. 

With nearly five years’ incarceration hanging over Lauren’s head, Bagby wrote a letter to the court on her behalf.

The judge ruled favorably for Lauren — no jail time. She returned to the Lotus house, and her relationship with Bagby continued. 

While that relationship has been front and center at the Lotus house for roughly the last year, Lauren hasn’t been the only woman living there to catch Bagby’s attention, according to former residents.

“I thought it was a little weird because I go outside, smoke a cigarette at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, he’d be somewhere different with a different girl at different times on the back porch, on the front porch,” said Braden Myers.

That’s when I started realizing that it wasn’t going to be a good place for me and Brooke. Because he was a creeper. I felt like he’s a womanizer. He exploits young women trying to get their life together.

Another former resident, who will be called Amanda, was living at the Lotus house in 2022 when she observed an inappropriate relationship between Bagby and one of her housemates. Amanda wasn’t sure how to define that relationship, but she called it “very creepy.”

Bagby also made sexual comments toward many other women, she said.

Zekie is very chauvinistic and made all kinds of snide comments about people’s looks, their breasts, their behinds, everything. … (He was) always commenting on your body, your shape, your intelligence. … I have a rather large chest, and he always would make comments about the clothes that I was wearing — ‘Oh, you’re going out in that. Put on something shorter.’ Or ‘Your boobs are hanging out looking good today’ or stuff like that. It was just really disgusting. … It was a comment every day, at least once a day.

At one point, Amanda told Bagby his comments made her uncomfortable. But nothing changed, she said. 

It became a moot point because when you try to confront these people, they just double down.

According to Chloé, Bagby harassed “whatever girl he thought was pretty.” Referring to one of her housemates, she said:

He really tried to put himself on her … and I could just tell she was hating it. She was almost too afraid to say anything. She would just kind of, ‘Haha,’ laugh it off.

“He’s in his own harem,” said Dale, a pseudonym for another former resident. “He just lives on the girls’ side and he’s happy because that’s what he wants.” 

Dale continued:

Those women are right off the street. You should not be staying there with them. … That’s a sick person. That’s like trying to shoot fish in a goldfish tank. I mean, they’re very vulnerable. They’ve been selling their bodies on the street. They’re very easy to get, you know, and then he’s going to live on that side and be with the clientele that he’s supposedly helping. That’s not right. … He’s in a position of power, you know, and these girls are off the street, so it’s easy for him to do. And they’re scared to come up.

On a sunny (then stormy) afternoon in late July, I drove down to Parkwood Avenue to observe the Lotus house. I parked barely two houses down — just close enough to clearly see the front door to the women’s side of the duplex. 

By the time I set up my video camera at 3:48 p.m., Bagby was standing on the front porch smoking a cigarette, looking out toward the busy street. After a few minutes, he turned around and walked back into the house — straight through the women’s front door. 

Over the next five and a half hours, Bagby emerged from the women’s house three more times. At both 4:29 p.m. and 6:29 p.m. he came outside to smoke a cigarette and walked back inside the women’s house within five minutes. At 9:04 p.m., he stepped onto the porch briefly before walking toward the men’s side and out of view for eight minutes. At 9:15 p.m., a man presumed to be Bagby walked from the men’s side, across the porch, and directly through the women’s front door. His face was not visible, but the man matched Bagby’s silhouette and he was wearing the same style hat. When I left the area at 9:30 p.m., he had not re-appeared from behind the women’s front door.

From my vantage point, Bagby appeared to be living with the women, just as former residents reported.

The below video surveillance shows every time I observed Bagby entering and exiting the house. The identities of other residents were concealed with video editing. 

Despite Bagby’s own alleged pursuit of female residents, he vehemently prohibited “fraternizing,” according to former residents.

Anyone who socialized with a resident of the opposite sex risked being evicted on the spot — even those who came to Lotus Recovery as couples.

Brooke Sanislow and Braden Myers were already in a relationship when they moved into the Lotus house, and they say they disclosed their relationship to Bagby before they handed him $500 for a one-time admin fee along with their first week’s rent in cash. “It was pretty much everything that we had,” Myers told me.

Not long after they moved in, Myers raised a concern about a sanitation issue in the home. He said Bagby then accused him of causing the issue and made a comment that he was “not going to work out.”

On or around day three, Myers was out of food, and Sanislow crossed over to the men’s side of the front porch to bring him a bowl of noodles. “I think that’s what sent (Bagby) overboard,” Myers said. Not long after that:

(Bagby) told me that I had to get all my belongings right then and there and exit that house. … I didn’t have nowhere to go. It was at night time. I think it was raining outside. It was terrible that night. And he’s got all my things on the front porch and he’s telling me that Brooke can stay but I can’t stay.

Naturally, Sanislow chose to leave with her partner. 

Jennifer Adams returned to the women’s house from work shortly after Bagby ordered Myers to leave. She recalled Sanislow telling her they were leaving because Bagby caught them talking to each other on the porch.

“We wasn’t even acting like we were together,” Sanislow told me.

You can roll them cameras back from the time that we were there. We was not disrespectful, not one bit. We didn’t hug up on each other. We weren’t laying up on each other. We were very respectful about it.

Bagby knew they had used the last of their money to get into the Lotus house, they said, but he refused to refund any of it — even though they had only stayed there for a few days.

With no resources, they both slept outside that night. 

“We were trying to get help,” Sanislow said. “I just felt like he tried to sucker us in for our money and then turn around and kick us out to dry.” 

“I felt so bad for that girl,” Adams said. 

They hadn’t even been there three days. And they come all the way from Roanoke, Virginia, and she literally had to leave most of her stuff there because she didn’t have nowhere to put it. And it was raining outside, and it was cold, and they literally had to leave. … When (Bagby) say ‘Get out,’ he means right then. They do not refer you nowhere.

She added:

They already knew that they was boyfriend and girlfriend. It doesn’t make sense. (Bagby and Lauren) can talk on the porch though. Let us talk to a man on the porch. Oh, it was a problem.

Susco and Dale were also targeted for “fraternizing.”

The two had developed a friendship during their time at Lotus Recovery and they spent time together outside of the house on three occasions: They shared a ride to an IOP session, they attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting together, and one other time, Dale helped Susco move items out of her storage unit. According to both of them, a third resident was with them on all three outings.

Nonetheless, they were both punished. Dale said Bagby put him on a 30-day probationary period with restrictions, during which he could only leave the house for limited reasons, such as attending 12-step meetings.

Susco, who had barely lived at the Lotus house for two weeks, wasn’t given a second chance, she said:

I got a painting job up in Northern Virginia. It was a weekend gig, but it was paying good, and I didn’t have anything. So, I let them know I was going to go paint, and while I was up there painting, I started getting all these phone call messages I’d seen on my phone from (Lauren). ‘You need to call me now’ and blah, blah, blah. So, I called her, and she’s like, ‘You just need to come home right now.’ I said, ‘I can’t. I’m working.’ And she was like, ‘Oh, bullshit, working on a Sunday, painting?’ And I offered to video chat her. Like, I was covered in paint. The house had drops all over it. Then she told (me), ‘There’s a lot more going on than that.’ And then she says, ‘I think it’s best if you just come and get your things.’ So, they basically threw me back out to the streets. It was horrifying. And she said (it was) because I’m screwing (Dale). … I just met the guy a week ago. And it was not true. … But her exact words were, ‘Yeah, you’re not allowed to fraternize with the guys.’ And I just thought that was hilarious, being how Zekie’s practically living on our side. …

And I’m better now. Like, I’m blessed today. I have a job. I have a nice place to stay. But, I mean, I was in a very dark place when I went there. … I had hung myself two months before I went there. I’d lost everything because of an abusive relationship… I was so grateful to get into that house. And then I’m out working that Sunday, and to get that phone call that I’m thrown out for screwing somebody…it was devastating. And so I’m very pleased that somebody’s really interested (in reporting on this), because to play with people that go there, you know, people that go there aren’t doing well. We’re broken, and that’s very serious, you know, if you’re going to be in a position where you’re going to stand up and help people, then you’ve got to be some kind of ethically correct on some things. You can’t just do that to people, throw me back to the streets like that. Thank God I was able to get into another house (because) I don’t know what would have happened to me.

In Virginia, as in many states, recovery housing is an unregulated industry. Anyone can open and operate a recovery home — no qualifications, background checks or even personal sustained recovery is required.

Against the backdrop of growing national attention to the industry’s predatory underbelly, VARR promised to help Virginia consumers avoid the “bad actors” by pointing them to the good ones — the VARR-certified operators.

As the Virginia state affiliate of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR), VARR is required to uphold “the rigorous NARR quality standards, ensuring safe, ethical, and effective environments for recovery,” according to NARR’s new website. 

But just as VARR and other NARR affiliates are led by recovery house owners and operators, NARR is largely governed by its own affiliate leaders, one of whom is now VARR Executive Director Anthony Grimes.

The NARR model is a self-policing system from top to bottom — and one that state governments across the country have been steadily endorsing in lieu of independent oversight.  

In 2020, Virginia followed suit. With a little added paperwork, VARR-certified operators now have the opportunity to become state-certified through the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS). Echoing VARR’s claims, the DBHDS website asserts “VARR approved houses demonstrate adherence to a rigorous set of standards that is produced at the National level through NARR.” 

But under current state regulation, DBHDS isn’t charged with verifying those standards. The agency functions more like an advertising partner to VARR — lending credibility through “state certification,” without providing direct oversight. 

To be formally certified by DBHDS, a recovery house operator need only fill out two pages of basic information, provide evidence that the house complies with minimum square footage requirements, and be accredited by one of two nongovernmental organizations: Oxford House — for self-supporting, democratically-run homes formed under Oxford House charters — or VARR, for all others. Soon, state-certified recovery house operators will also be required to report deaths and serious injuries to DBHDS, thanks to recent legislation sponsored by state Sens. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Loudoun County) and Barbara Favola (D-Arlington County). 

Nothing on this minimal checklist amounts to ensuring that a recovery home is ethically managed — that recovery house operators won’t sleep with their clients, deploy retaliatory evictions or nurture environments that are otherwise hostile to recovery. 

The State Board of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services — the board that drafted regulations for state certified recovery residences — doesn’t have the authority to add new requirements, according to DBHDS Director of Regulatory Affairs Ruth Anne Walker. “(The) intent of the General Assembly as a result of a workgroup was that certified recovery residences were implemented to set a ‘bare minimum’ bar for the longstanding peer-run model,” she said in an email. “Additional requirements would need to be further mandated by the General Assembly.”

If you want to get in touch with your lawmakers, you can find the legislators who represent you, along with their contact information, by using the state’s Who’s My Legislator? service.

Earlier this year, DBHDS created and filled a staff position to provide quality assurance for recovery residences, but it’s unclear what level of assurance that position will be able to offer without changes to the state regulations. DBHDS declined to answer any questions about the new role.

***

Three former Lotus Recovery residents, who lived at the house shortly after it first opened in late 2021, reported a positive experience there. After all three of them transitioned from what they described as a toxic environment at True Recovery RVA, they found the Lotus house refreshing and recovery-oriented. One of them credited that experience to the leadership of the first women’s side house manager.

It’s unclear exactly when the Lotus house spiraled — or if Bagby was just better at hiding his activities in the beginning — but Lotus residents have been complaining to VARR since at least the fall of last year.

According to Jennifer Adams, one of her housemates reported Bagby’s behavior to VARR in October or November 2023. In response, a VARR employee (whose name she couldn’t remember) called the female residents one by one and asked them a short list of questions. 

But before VARR placed those phone calls, someone gave Bagby the heads-up. He told the residents that VARR would be calling and then effortlessly took control of VARR’s investigation, Adams said.

When the residents received their phone calls, they gathered in the kitchen and put their phones on speaker. As the VARR employee rattled off his list of questions, the residents responded how Bagby told them to — while Bagby and/or Lauren looked them in the eye.

Are you safe in the house? Yes.

Is there any illegal activity going on in the house? No.

VARR also asked about the relationship between Bagby and Lauren, Adams said. “And they both stood right there and made us say to the guy that there was nothing going on between them two.”

After that, everything at the Lotus house went back to normal. To Adams’ knowledge, VARR took no further action.

Four to five months later, VARR received two more complaints — at minimum.

“The day they threw me out, I went out there (to the VARR office) and told them everything that was going on,” Darey Susco said. “Apparently they had gotten numerous complaints about that particular house. That’s what they said when I went in there.” 

Susco didn’t have a copy of her complaint because she made it in person at the VARR office. But VARR employee Bob de Triquet provided her with a written confirmation that VARR received her complaint.

While she had VARR’s attention, Susco also shared how Bagby’s gambling affected her. 

According to Susco and other former residents, Bagby made no efforts to hide his gambling habit. He often took Lauren on late night trips to Rosie’s and participated in sports betting with her at the Lotus house.

As is the case with many people who suffer from substance use disorder, Susco had also struggled with a gambling addiction. “It was like a kick in the head watching them just sit there and gamble like they were,” she said. 

It had been roughly a year since Susco last gambled, but when Bagby did it right in front of her at the house, she relapsed. 

VARR staff promised Susco they were taking her complaint seriously and planned to look into it, she told me. But after answering de Triquet’s questions, she never heard from VARR again.

A few days later, Dale made a formal complaint to VARR.

According to Dale, multiple employees across different programs at the Parham Road office — home to VARR and a network of organizations affiliated with VARR leaders — were already familiar with Bagby’s reputation. He said one of the employees there told him, “Yeah, we know about (Bagby). He has a track history.”

After filing his complaint, Dale said VARR made Lotus house residents start going to the recovery center on Parham Road instead of sitting around the Lotus House during the day. But nothing changed relating to the substance of his complaint. 

After de Triquet asked Dale some follow-up questions and acknowledged receipt of his last email, Dale never heard from VARR again. Meanwhile, Bagby’s relationship with Lauren and his occupancy in the women’s house continued.

Dale wasn’t surprised by VARR’s lack of response. Along with many other sober home residents I’ve interviewed over the last two years, Dale got the impression that VARR, Lotus, True Recovery, and all the big players in the Richmond area were part of a tightly bound network, willing to protect one another. 

“They’re not going to cut their own throat,” he said. 

That’s like, I’m going to college and I’m going to make my own grades. Of course I’m going to pass.

Dale told me he knew that talking to VARR meant putting himself at risk. But with a strong support system in the area — unlike many sober home residents — Dale wasn’t deterred by the prospect of being evicted. 

I said (to VARR), “I’m going to file this complaint with you guys, and then Zekie’s going to find out about it and I’ll get kicked out.” They’re like, “No, it’s confidential.” I said, “Well, watch what happens.”

Roughly a month later, according to Dale: 

Zekie comes up to me and says, “I’m going to have to get rid of you because you’re undermining my authority.” … (He said), “You don’t think I know the people that you complained to? You don’t think I’m going to know what you do?”

Rattling off a list of supplementary allegations, Bagby accused Dale of having tried to “burn the house down” after he accidentally burned something on the stove one night, blamed him for a plumbing leak, and accused him of bending Bagby’s license plate when he pulled his bike in one afternoon.

“He gave me until 6:30 that night (to leave),” Dale said.

Chloé told me she was also evicted without notice. She didn’t go into detail but said she was told to leave immediately after one of her housemates made some untrue statements about her (which might have been a natural byproduct of the environment Bagby cultivated). “It did hurt my feelings,” Chloé said, “because I felt like they knew my character…and I was doing everything I needed to do.”

According to Chloé, Bagby did not help her find another place to live. She said she had also just paid her rent in advance, and Bagby did not refund any of her money.

One of Chloé’s housemates tried to help her move her belongings, but Bagby threatened to evict that resident next if she did so, Chloé said. “They were all told to ignore me. … It’s like you’re shunned.” 

***

As of 2022, people living in state-certified recovery housing no longer have tenant rights — thanks to legislation state Delegate Carrie Coyner (R-Chesterfield) sponsored on VARR’s behalf.

But Bagby never took the few extra steps needed to turn his VARR certification into formal state certification⁸ — meaning residents of the Lotus house have been entitled to the same tenant rights afforded to most Virginians under the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (VRLTA). 

“The current law under the VRLTA is pretty clear that if a recovery house — or what’s been purported to be a recovery house — is not state-certified, meaning they haven’t gone through all the certification steps as set out by DBHDS, then the VRLTA applies to that residency,” said Janae Craddock, a social justice attorney for the Virginia Poverty Law Center. 

Craddock didn’t comment on the Lotus house specifically, but she explained how the law applies to any landlord covered by the VRLTA. 

“The landlord cannot just evict an individual on a whim,” she said. 

Immediate terminations only can occur when there’s, like, criminal activity and some type of threat that’s a safety hazard, right? So if I shoot up the place or I’m beating up the residents with a hammer … or if I’m operating a meth lab out of my room, that kind of stuff. 

Absent such extenuating circumstances, landlords must follow procedures delineated in the VRLTA, which include providing tenants with notice and then going through a court process to secure the eviction. To ensure tenants understand this, the law also requires landlords to provide them with a six-page document summarizing their rights and responsibilities. 

To find out if you live in a state-certified recovery house, you can check the DBHDS list of certified recovery residences or ask the DBHDS Office of Recovery Services. Links to housing-related legal resources can be found on the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development’s website.

Over the last three years, VARR awarded Isiah Bagby $350,312 under its three-year capacity-expansion budget⁹ — legislatively directed money that was meant to expand recovery housing throughout Virginia. He received the second highest amount out of the 19 award recipients. 

Starting in late 2021, VARR’s decision to fund Bagby’s sober home venture came after his brother Lamont supported VARR’s efforts to secure that money.

The extent of Sen. Bagby’s support, however, remains up for debate.

When I spoke with Bagby in late 2022, he told me he supported VARR’s work and pursuit of funding — including VARR’s pursuit of the $10 million — but he described himself as more of a sideline supporter. 

“When you start asking me the detailed questions about how they accomplish what they do,” he said, “I have no clue.”

Various records, however, suggest Bagby’s support was more significant than he was willing to admit.

• In a December 2020 email to the DBHDS, VARR Executive Director Anthony Grimes stated that Bagby pushed a $500,000 budget amendment through the General Assembly for VARR. 
• In another email to DBHDS that same month, VARR President Sarah Scarbrough wrote that Bagby was “working very hard” to remedy what VARR believed was an unjustified withholding of funds by DBHDS. 
• The following month, Grimes emailed a complaint to the DBHDS commissioner and the governor’s office, in which he reiterated Bagby’s support for VARR and copied Bagby on the email. (When asked to comment on these emails in 2022, Bagby reiterated his general support of funding for the recovery community and said, “It wasn’t my budget amendment. … You’re going to have to ask (Grimes) what he was trying to accomplish with that.”)
• In a May 2022 email to the governor’s office, then-DBHDS Chief Administrative Officer Cort Kirkley wrote, “Rep Lamont Bagby is a VARR champion in the (General Assembly).”

Related emails are available here.

A couple of months after VARR received its $10 million line item from the 2021 Special Session II of the Virginia General Assembly, Sen. Bagby and then-VARR President David Rook presented together at the October 2021 NARR summit in a session titled “Building Relationships between Recovery Home Operators & Legislators.” 

In June 2022, I requested emails and text messages between Bagby’s office and David Rook, Anthony Grimes and another former VARR employee. Through his chief of staff, Bagby provided six emails, none of which were incriminating. He declined to release the requested text messages, citing state law that exempts legislators’ correspondence from mandatory disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. 

Bagby didn’t introduce the budget amendments that directed public money to VARR — a fact he stated repeatedly when I spoke with him twice in late 2022. But that didn’t absolve him of influencing the outcome.

Throughout his eight years in the House of Delegates, Bagby developed a track record for keeping his name off budget amendment requests. Forty-seven other delegates served in regular sessions for the same years Bagby did (2016 to 2023), during which time they introduced an average of 49 budget amendments each. Meanwhile, Bagby introduced a total of three — fewer than any other member. (LIS)¹⁰

As chairman of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus (VLBC) since 2018, Bagby has been well-positioned to influence legislation without attaching his name to it.

Here’s Bagby talking about how the VLBC impacted federal funding allocations during the 2021 Special Session II of the Virginia General Assembly — the same session from which $10 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding was allocated to VARR (through DBHDS).

The following year, Bagby was scheduled to speak at the 2022 NARR summit in a session titled, “VARR: How We Did It (Part 2),” which highlighted VARR’s progression from having “very little state support” in 2019 to having more than $14.15 million committed by the legislature in 2022. After speaking with me, Bagby did not attend that session or another scheduled panel discussion with VARR. 

A confidential source who discussed VARR funding with Bagby in 2021 described his support as “instrumental” in ensuring VARR’s $10 million allotment made it into the final budget — the same $10 million from which VARR awarded $350,312 to Lotus Recovery.

In late 2022, Sen. Bagby told me he didn’t know that his brother received money from VARR. Last week, when I summarized the allegations reported by former Lotus residents and asked him to comment on VARR’s continuing financial support for his brother, he didn’t respond.

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For the first two years of VARR’s three-year capacity-expansion budget, VARR quietly awarded the majority of the money to organizations owned or operated by VARR leaders and their affiliates. 

Two months after I published a January 2023 installment covering VARR’s insider benefits, VARR implemented a public application process for capacity-expansion awards — just in time for the third and final year VARR had access to that pot of money.

The new process did improve the geographic distribution of the money — which had been largely hoarded in Metro Richmond — but for reasons that aren’t clear, Lotus Recovery was still selected for a third year of funding.

In February, I asked VARR President Sarah Scarborough to provide the portion of Isiah Bagby’s application that would show what he intended to do with his third-year award of $125,000.

Scarbrough declined to release that record and instead provided the following statement:

Pertaining to Lotus Recovery, they submitted a funding application to expand its capacity, aimed at serving a younger and diverse population, highlighting the organization’s need for support. It’s crucial to mention that this application, along with others for capacity expansion, underwent a review process conducted by a panel. This panel included three external individuals not affiliated with VARR, in addition to myself, the VARR board president. The external members, who were mostly unfamiliar with the applying organizations, made their decisions to approve or deny the applications based solely on (the) merit of the application, the population they served, and ensuring it met the criteria of the capacity expansion funding.

When asked to explain the specific purpose of the award — i.e.: What does “expand its capacity” mean? — Scarbrough did not respond.

Former residents responded with shock when I told them about the money Lotus Recovery received from VARR. None of them could conceptualize who might be benefiting from that money other than Isiah Bagby.

Bagby didn’t waive fees for indigent residents, they told me. He sometimes gave new residents a grace period to find a job, but he always made them pay back the money they owed. 

“He was always on it,” Adams said.

Literally, let you owe him 10 dollars. Oh, he wants that. And he would be mad about it until you paid it.

It’s also unclear if there’s a record of Bagby’s income.

According to the NARR standard, certified recovery house operators must show documentation of a legal business entity and appropriate liability coverage. 

But Lotus Recovery RVA has not been a legal business entity since October 2022, when the organization became inactive with the Virginia State Corporation Commission. In Virginia, it’s a misdemeanor offense to transact business under a name that’s not properly registered with the state. 

According to the QuickBooks reports VARR provided to DBHDS, VARR has written at least six checks to “Lotus Recovery RVA” since October 2022.

What’s more, the City of Richmond requires every person with a place of business in Richmond to obtain a business license through the city. 

According to the VARR website, the Lotus house “complies with state and/or local permit and licensing requirements.” But in March, the city’s finance department reported having no business licenses associated with Isiah Bagby, the Lotus house address or Lotus Recovery.

Former residents told me Bagby insisted they pay him via cash or a personal payment app, such as Cash App. He did not accept checks or debit card payments, they said, nor did he provide receipts.

According to Adams, Bagby also insisted on residents attending an IOP that would pay him via his preferred methods. 

Adams was already participating in an IOP through an outside organization when she moved into the Lotus house. That organization was willing to pay Bagby for her rent, but the owner wanted Bagby to establish a business PayPal account to accept rent payments. According to Adams, that was a dealbreaker for Bagby.

“It’s suspicious to me,” she said. “You’re supposed to be a legit company. Why don’t you want anything set up through a bank account or a prepaid account or anything? You don’t want this stuff online.” (Nevermind that paying inducements for IOP participation — a highly common practice in Richmond — was also illegal.)

Then, “One day I come in the house and he said, ‘Jennifer, this is going to be your last day at your IOP class. You’re not allowed to go to that one anymore. You have to find another one, because we’re not dealing with them people.'” He suggested she go to PBS — the same program to which Bagby allegedly referred Susco and other Lotus residents in exchange for rent payments.

After that, Adams left the Lotus house and moved into another recovery home, “because I’m like, you can’t tell me that I can’t go to a certain IOP class because you don’t want a paper trail.”

According to Susco and Dale, PBS was the main IOP provider paying rent to Bagby for his residents’ attendance. Another PBS client, Whitney — a non-Lotus resident — told me roughly half the participants in her IOP group lived at the Lotus House, and it was common knowledge that PBS paid Bagby for their rent.  

PBS owner Keisha Wright didn’t respond to interview requests or a request for comment. But her attorney wrote in a cease-and-desist letter that the statements outlined in my request for comment were defamatory. 

Despite being heavily funded with taxpayer money, Bagby is only accountable to his peers at VARR — including the same people with whom he sat on the board of Imagine the Freedom Recovery Foundation in 2021 and 2022, the same people who went into business with his brother when they purchased the Parham Road office building together in 2021, and the same people whose ongoing legislative agendas stand to be supported or thwarted by his brother’s influential position in the Virginia Senate.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Lotus Recovery is still certified by VARR. 

And according to VARR’s website, the women’s side has beds available for new residents.

VARR did not respond to questions and a request for comment about complaints filed by former Lotus residents, Bagby’s unlawful evictions, or Lotus Recovery’s inactive status as a legal business entity, among other issues presented in this installment.

NARR Executive Director Dave Sheridan did not respond when asked how NARR verifies its claim that affiliate organizations “are dedicated to enforcing national standards” or when asked how NARR expects its affiliates to address grievances.

Isiah Bagby did not respond to multiple interview requests or a request for comment. But while he was still living at True Recovery in 2020, he talked with the Richmond-Times Dispatch about his vision for starting his own recovery house. “(W)orking with others has helped (Bagby) maintain his desire to stay clean, and inspired him to plan for the opening of his own sober-living home,” reporter Chris Suarez wrote. “He wants to live for others; to help them find their own paths to a better life.” 

If you’d like to share your experience with Lotus Recovery or any Richmond-area recovery home, please reach out to me. As always, I won’t share your name or anything that could identify you without your permission.

The next main installment will continue covering exploitative practices in Metro Richmond recovery organizations. If you believe this reporting is valuable, please let me know that by subscribing to future posts.

March 2025 update: The Lotus Recovery duplex has been removed from VARR’s website as a certified recovery residence. Lotus Recovery is also no longer listed as a VARR-accredited organization.

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Scroll below to view investigative stories in The Parham Papers series, or visit the homepage to explore all articles, including legislative updates.

1. In Parts 1, 4 and 8, I reported that WAR Foundation, True Recovery RVA, Journey House Foundation and Starfish Recovery & Wellness were mandating residents to participate in River City Comprehensive Counseling Services’ Medicaid-funded IOP and that River City owner Jimmy Christmas allegedly paid kickbacks to those organizations in exchange for their referrals. To protect patients and taxpayers from exploitation in the health care system, theAnti-Kickback Statute andEliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act (EKRA) make it a crime to offer or receive kickbacks for health care referrals. [Return to article]

2. I omitted the localities where Lauren had pending charges to ensure her real identity is protected. [Return to article]

3. As I reported in Part 9, from roughly 2016 until 2020, Henrico County judges ordered numerous defendants with substance use issues to the care of unregulated sober homes, thinking they were sending them to inpatient treatment centers. In November 2023 — roughly five years after Bagby was court-ordered to True Recovery — the organization obtained licensure to open an outpatient treatment program. [Return to article]

4. A 2023 audit by DBHDS found VARR had no lease to validate the $90,288 payment. VARR also had no records to substantiate at least another $21,190 in payments to Lotus Recovery during that first year. Several months after I published an article covering the discrepancies with Lotus and other VARR-funded organizations, VARR President Sarah Scarbrough explained that some of the newer organizations did not yet have well-established processes for documenting receipts and that VARR took steps to correct the issues once they were discovered as a result of the audit. Her full statement was added to that installment. [Return to article]

5. As of Aug. 9, DBHDS did not have related expenditure records from VARR beyond March 4. As of that date, VARR still owed Lotus Recovery one more payment of $31,250. [Return to article]

6. Last year, when I requested VARR’s expenditure records for fiscal year 2023, DBHDS reported having no record of which organizations VARR funded for peer positions through Recovery Corps. For fiscal year 2024, DBHDS provided related records for less than half of the year, showing VARR funded between two and three part-time positions for Lotus Recovery in February, March, April and June 2024. Those records can be viewed here. [Return to article]

7. If 20 out of 22 residents paid the current standard weekly bed fee of $160, the Lotus house would gross $166,400 per year in rent alone. [Return to article]

8. On Aug. 9, DBHDS FOIA Officer Elisa Fulton reported, “Office of Recovery Services has no record of any applications from Lotus Recovery to become a DBHDS Certified Recovery Residence.” [Return to article]

9. The $350,312 VARR awarded to Lotus Recovery under its capacity-expansion budget did not include the Lotus staff positions VARR paid for through other funding sources. [Return to article]

10. I was unable to find any aggregated data showing the number of budget amendments introduced per legislator. So, for each of the 48 delegates who served in regular sessions from 2016 to 2023, I counted the number of budget amendment requests they submitted for each session, as listed on the state budget website. My spreadsheet is available here. If anyone finds a miscount, please let me know so I can correct it. [Return to article]