Eighty-two-year-old Horace Brakes Jr.’s children say their father was so badly neglected at Krystal Bay Nursing and Rehabilitation in North Miami Beach that he died from severe pressure wounds on his body.

Daughter Jo Antoniette Brakes said when her father was rushed from the nursing home to the hospital for heart issues, the doctor was horrified at his condition.

“The doctor said it looked horrible and that you could tell that he had not been receiving proper care,” she said. “The doctor literally said that. And you know, most doctors don’t even say that type of thing, but he did.” The next day after that call, the doctor phoned again — this time to tell Jo Antionette her father had died.

In February, three years after Brakes’ death, a Miami-Dade County jury returned a $14.7 million verdict against the nursing home owner and management company.

The double-digit verdict is one of the largest against a nursing home in Miami-Dade County and represents money owed to the family for their father’s wrongful death.

Now starts the process of collecting on the verdict, an undertaking that has frustrated families like Horace Brakes’. In Florida, collecting on a jury award against a nursing home can be a legal marathon. The state remains a high-stakes environment where large verdicts against long-term care facilities are increasingly common, but so are the corporate maneuvers to avoid paying them, according to attorneys who specialize in nursing home neglect cases.

Lizer Jozefovic and Steven Gottlieb, the principals of Watercrest Acquisitions and Royal Meridian Management Corp., have dissolved the limited liability companies that had owned and managed Krystal Bay when Brakes lived there. The 150-bed nursing home on Northeast 167th Street in North Miami Beach remains open but operates under a different name and ownership.

By law, Florida nursing homes are required to carry liability insurance as a condition of licensure. However, Florida law does not mandate a specific minimum-dollar amount for this coverage, and many nursing homes have little to no insurance, according to Garrick Harding, an attorney with Senior Justice Law Firm who represented the Brakes family. 

Harding said that despite being served notices, no one appeared in court to represent the nursing home’s owner or manager.

“They took the strategy of ‘we’re just not going to respond, we think we’re judgment proof, we’re just going to dissolve these LLCs and then tell (the family) good luck getting blood from a stone.’ That’s the only explanation that can come from their conduct,” Harding said.

Harding says he will pursue the principals of Krystal Bay Nursing and Rehabilitation’s ownership and management companies to collect what’s owed to his client.

“We’re going to hold them accountable,” said Harding, an attorney with Senior Justice Law Firm.  “We’re working with debt collection attorneys to chase them to the end of the Earth. You don’t get to just fold up shop and run away from your responsibilities, and think you won’t be held accountable.”

Brakes had lived at Krystal Bay Nursing Home for two years, during which his children say they questioned his care on multiple occasions, concerned about possible neglect.

Jo Antionette Brakes said she and her five siblings live outside of Florida, and on one visit to Krystal Bay, she found their father on the floor.

Rasheedah Warner, also a daughter of Horace Brakes, said she is distraught and angry with Krystal Bay’s owner and manager: “They were taking his money but not doing what they were supposed to do for him,” she said. “I don’t think anyone should have to suffer the way he did. It’s heartbreaking.”

Harding, of the Senior Justice Law Firm in Boca Raton, emphasized that the significant $14.7 million verdict awarded to Brakes’ children underscores the importance of vigilance, accountability, and dignity in elder care.
Not the first time

In addition to the Brakes’ jury award, Fort Lauderdale attorney Christopher W. Royer had won a jury verdict of $1.2 million from Watercrest in 2025 on behalf of his client, Marie Fleurantin. She sued Watercrest for the wrongful death of her husband, Denis, who had been a resident at Krystal Bay in 2021 and died from what the family alleged was inadequate nursing care and a lack of response to his respiratory distress.

Royer said Fleurantin is still trying to collect the money owed. “It’s very frustrating for the family,” he said.

“People don’t think about if something goes wrong in a Florida nursing home, they won’t have recourse because, in theory, they are supposed to carry insurance, but in reality, they don’t,” Royer said. “We took the case and thought through pressure we could make them pay, but they just went out of business.”

In addition to being sued by the Brakes’ family for neglect, Watercrest Acquisitions, former owner of Krystal Bay, has been sued by family members of other residents for negligence or wrongful death seven additional times since 2019.

• The estate of former resident Nelson Gonzalez won a $51,805 judgment. The estate’s representative obtained a writ of garnishment on March 2 to collect on the judgment from Gottlieb’s bank account.

• In cases brought by the estate of Lola Lee Carr and the estate of Will Taylor, Watercrest settled with the families for an undisclosed sum, then failed to pay the settlement, according to court records.

•  The law firm that defended Watercrest in one of those cases has sued, claiming it has not been paid its legal fees of $52,773.

•  Workers at Krystal Bay also claimed they are owed money. Labor union SEIU 1199 accused Watercrest of failing to provide advance notice of a transfer of ownership in 2023. In March 2025, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Watercrest violated a collective bargaining agreement with the workers’ union by transferring the operations of its facility in North Miami Beach without the union’s consent. The judge ruled the workers were entitled to back pay and compensation for unused paid time off. The NLRB will now need to enforce the order.

It’s not just Krystal Bay

Both Jozefovic and Gottlieb have been and continue to be heavily involved in the nursing home industry.

Gottlieb and Jozefovic are listed as the registered agents for Krystal Bay’s former owner, Watercrest Acquisition, and its management company, Royal Meridian. The two men also are listed as the registered agents for three other Florida nursing homes that were managed by Royal Meridian: West Broward Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Plantation, Bay Vue Nursing and Rehabilitation center in Bradenton, and Martin Nursing and Rehabilitation in Stuart. The companies that owned and managed those nursing homes have also been dissolved.

The Plantation nursing home now operates as Broward Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation with new ownership as of May 2024. The Bradenton location now operates as Aviata at Bradenton with new owners as of November 2023. Martin Nursing and Rehabilitation is no longer open.

In North Miami Beach, state records show Watercrest sold Krystal Bay to a company owned by Andrew and Rachel Bronfeld in May 2023. The new owner changed the name to Serenity Bay Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and the new owners are not affiliated with Watercrest or its previous owners.

Jozefovic is CEO of Epic Healthcare Management, based in New York. Epic calls itself a family of rehabilitation and long-term care facilities. Its website lists six nursing homes under its ownership, all in New York. He is also a founding principal and managing partner of SimbaCare, LLC, which owns two nursing homes in New York. Jozefovic did not return calls or emails seeking comment.

Steven Gottlieb, a Miami Beach resident, is an on-site administrator at Florida nursing homes. Phone messages and emails to Gottlieb went unanswered.

Harding said he plans to make the Agency for Health Care Administration aware of what has occurred with these nursing home owners.

“This happens more than you would think,” he said, “and it happens at a rate that shouldn’t be allowed by the state.”

Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.