The Sedona Fire District is being sued in Yavapai County Superior Court by Sedona resident Corinne Braun, who alleges SFD personnel violated her health care power of attorney during a series of events in 2023 that she claims contributed to the death of her 101-year-old mother, Michele Braun.

SFD Chief Ed Mezulis declined to comment on the suit apart from confirming on Jan. 22 that no settlement had been reached.

Braun filed suit against SFD as well as SFD Fire Chief Ed Mezulis, SFD Assistant Chief Jayson Coil and Verde Valley Medical Center on Aug. 16, 2024, accusing the district and personnel of infliction of emotional distress, aiding and abetting tortious conduct, deprivation of rights, warrantless seizure under the Fourth Amendment, violation of her free speech rights and unlawful denial of a public records request.

The suit also includes as defendants “RB” and “RL,” two employees of the Adult Protective Services division within the Arizona Department of Economic Security, each of whom is described in Braun’s complaint as an “unnamed aider and abettor.”

According to Braun’s complaint, she held a durable power of attorney for health care for her mother, dated Jan. 15, 2020, that authorized her to make medical decisions and give or withhold consent to treatment, sign waivers to leave a hospital against medical advice and to pursue litigation against any third party who failed to comply with her decisions. The HPOA was confirmed by the Yavapai County Superior Court on June 29, 2020.

The lawsuit states that as a devout Catholic with a number of relatives who had lived past the age of 100, “Michele had a desire to live,” and also notes that Michele Braun’s physician had “cautioned Corinne against following medical advice of firemen.”

At the time, Braun was engaged in a dispute with her brother Eric Braun, of Hanover, Mass., over responsibility for her mother’s care and had also obtained an order of protection against him in January 2020.

Braun’s lawsuit claims that Michele Braun had full mental capacity until Dec. 24, 2022, “when a medical provider negligently turned off Michele’s oxygen,” and that it subsequently became necessary for her to request repeated “lift assists” from SFD “because the firemen were strong” and female health care aides were unable to move her as safely. “She was asking SFD for assistance because she understood this was a service offered by SFD,” the complaint states.

“In or around June 2023, SFD decided that it no longer wanted to help Michele and devised an unlawful plan to stop its service,” the complaint alleges. Over several months, Braun alleges, SFD contacted APS and “Coil concocted a plan to stop service to Michele by falsely alleging that Corinne was abusing or neglecting Michele … At least one member of ‘the primary crews running on [Michele]’ pushed back on the idea of abuse of Michele by Corinne.”

The lawsuit claims Coil reported his allegations APS in June 2023. “RL” reportedly closed the elder abuse complaint on July 13, 2023, as “unsubstantiated,” and notified SFD.

Braun’s complaint alleges SFD subsequently filed another APS complaint repeating the allegations, which allowed the case to remain open without investigation, and alleges Coil informed her on July 15 that SFD “would remove Michele from her care irrespective of the HPOA.”

Braun alleges SFD and APS staff tried to coerce her to place her mother in an assisted living facility or nursing home and APS allegedly threatened Michele Braun’s “health care workers if they would not provide APS with allegations of abuse and neglect.”

According to Braun’s complaint, when she called SFD for a lift assist on Aug. 19, 2023, the SFD crew took Michele Braun to VVMC. Braun alleges that SFD claimed she had assaulted or otherwise abused her mother.

According to Sedona police, “Officers were called to assist the fire department [SFD] by keeping the daughter of a patient from blocking their treatment and transport. Fire officials stated they were directed by the physician at the hospital to bring the mother in and overrode the daughter’s medical power of attorney. Members of the fire department reported earlier in the morning they were at the address and the daughter violently jabbed her mother in the leg to demonstrate an injury which caused the mother to cry out in pain. The mother is 101 years old. The mother was treated at VVMC for other health issues, and charges are being long formed to the city attorney.”

Braun attempted to file a complaint of “medical kidnapping with Sedona police on Aug. 20, which she claims SPD refused to accept, and her suit states that the Sedona police refused to turn over public records, instead denying that any such records existed. Braun’s complaint further states that VVMC personnel refused to allow Braun to visit her mother or transfer her to another facility.

Braun alleges her mother’s health began a decline that led to her death on Sept. 15. The complaint also alleges that SFD and VVMC provided confidential information to Braun’s brother to enable him to assert temporary guardianship and that his Aug. 23 application for guardianship, approved by Judge Joseph P. Goldstein, omitted mention of Braun’s HPOA.

Braun’s suit claims that her brother subsequently relocated their mother to the Carefree Assisted Living Center in Cottonwood, where she was administered morphine and lorazepam, a benzodiazepine used for sedation, and her weight dropped to less than 70 pounds before her death. The suit notes that an autopsy revealed that “morphine was present at 4x [437 ng/ml] the normal reference range of 10-100 ng/ml” in “the evening of Sept. 14 or the early morning of Sept. 15.”

Prior to and following Michele Braun’s death, Eric and Corinne Braun engaged in a further series of legal disputes over Corinne Braun’s access to her mother’s residence, with Corinne being arrested by SPD on Sept. 13 for entering the property in violation of a court order. Eric Braun subsequently alleged to SPD on Sept. 28 that Corinne Braun had been using their mother’s credit card to cover legal expenses without authorization and on Sept. 29 that he was being followed by a private investigator hired by his sister.

Corinne Braun is seeking damages in the amount of $300,000 for emotional distress, attorneys’ fees and costs, punitive damages and permission to bring a SLAPP suit.

On Dec. 4, 2024, Braun voluntarily dismissed VVMC, and on Dec. 9, Judge John Napper granted a request for an extension for the defendants to respond to the complaint until Jan. 15. SFD filed a further request for an extension on Jan. 15, stating that the parties have been engaged in settlement discussions.