“The first step to a full recovery is admitting you have a problem.”

This action by no means is a small one. It is the first step 12-step groups emphasize as the guiding principle outlining the foundation for personal recovery.

The Live and Let Live Alano Club (LLLAC) in San Diego is celebrating its 26th Anniversary in the San Diego GLBT community.

Traditionally, with each anniversary – starting with 30 days – recovering addicts get an anniversary/birthday token. It’s a tangible sign of a milestone crossed. Our hat goes off to LLLAC, as it earns its 26-year token. LLLAC addresses numerous addictions, with groups for narcotic addicts, crystal meth addicts, and even meetings for adult children of alcoholics, to name a few.

And, recognizing that addictions arise more often among the GLBT population, LLLAC’s focus is to serve this community. The Alano Club is all about creating a safe environment to assist with ones recovery through the power of surrender.

So, as we celebrate this milestone, it’s with a heavy heart we turn our journalistic eye to one of San Diego’s recovery centers, Stepping Stone Center for Recovery, which also focuses on the GLBT community.

On the night of March 31 and subsequent morning, Stepping Stone Enya House sober living resident Robert James Curry took more than just control over his life, he took his life. Medical examiners place the suicide between March 31 at 2:59 p.m. and April 1 at 11:30 a.m.

Two weeks later, chief executive John de Miranda could give few if any answers about some serious concerns raised surrounding Curry’s suicide. While police had been called on March 27 in response to Curry’s despondent mood, according to de Miranda, calls coming into Stepping Stone’s sober-living facility on March 31 went unanswered.

He says multiple attempts were made by phone to reach both Enya House and Curry himself, but de Miranda was only able to provide a verbal phone log of such.

de Miranda admits no one took action to actually locate Curry physically or go to the facility itself and says it was not the agency’s responsibility because Curry was “only a resident and not a client.”

According to de Miranda, Curry’s death was an intentional suicide and not an overdose, and therefore “the responsibility should not rely upon the agency.”

We could not disagree more.

de Miranda says he’s learned the suicide was ultimately prompted by some very bad health information Curry received earlier on Monday, but claims the client “had been talking about [suicide] for a long time.” This, de Miranda, also suggests, is why Stepping Stone is not responsible in any manner.

In fact, de Miranda says “There are a couple of issues, some more philosophical or existential” surrounding suicide and whether or not it is the responsibility of the agency to get involved. As for Curry specifically, de Miranda says although he was a resident at Stepping Stone’s Enya House facility, he was not a primary client of Stepping Stone, but of another agency. Moreover, de Miranda is alarmed at how the community is scrutinizing Stepping Stone’s role in Curry’s suicide.

He very well should be, because at this point, we have to ask, “Mr. de Miranda, what part of the 12 steps do you not understand?”

Curry’s death is tragic, to be sure. And such a situation most assuredly will bring more scrutiny.

Our ongoing investigation has raised questions about serious allegations of resource mismanagement, sexual harassment and wrongful termination. This is a story made we had planned to break after we had verified a few more sources, but feel compelled to present with this new information.

In the past there have been serious allegations made against the agency, which brought us to meet with representatives from the organization, who quickly quashed them and swept them under the rug.

We regret that we let our guard down then. We regret that we failed to live up to our masthead – “Who shall stand guard to the guards themselves?” Today, we take responsibility for our actions – or, more importantly, our inactions – and call on Stepping Stone to do the same.

There has been a significant exodus of Stepping Stone board members of late, and when individuals have tried to bring to light concerns, they appear to have been terminated.

While development has dwindled, the organization currently holds minimal if any unrestricted funding, while simultaneously borrowing against its line of credit to pay management nearly double what its predecessors made – management who couldn’t even answer questions regarding protocol for crisis or suicide intervention with clients or residents.

Additionally, the cadre of volunteers, past graduates of the program, which has long been one of Stepping Stone’s greatest assets has nearly ceased to exist.

The details of each of the allegations are still to be fully verified, but the quantity and consistency of the allegations do suggest a pattern of neglect, which may have enabled the most egregious – the tragic loss of a resident through suicide.

As it turns out, Curry clearly cared about Stepping Stone, as do so many members of the GLBT community who have gone through and graduated from the program, and as do we.

de Miranda notes that Curry donated his van and clothes to the agency, which Stepping Stone is already distributing to clients.

It’s time Stepping Stone, and, in particular, de Miranda, care enough to admit there is a problem. After all, it’s the first step to a full recovery. And we’ll be the first in line to acknowledge Stepping Stone’s 30-day token when it gets clean.