By Brian C. Feldman - Sun-Sentinel - Special Correspondent - February 19 2007 

Sunrise, Florida - John Cates let drug and alcohol addiction ruin a successful career as a criminal attorney, husband and father. Now, the 49-year-old from Sunrise is helping others as the co-owner of a drug and alcohol treatment center.

Cates lost his license to practice law in March 1993, after felony convictions for selling narcotics and grand theft in 1991 and 1992.

Lacking a law license, Cates opened a paralegal business and was convicted in 1996 and 2000 of defrauding at least 13 people out of more than $20,000. He served more than 2 1/2 years in jail.

"I fell into disgrace as a practicing attorney," Cates said. "Drugs were OK then. It was part of my fast life of being a lawyer. After a while I began to live to use [drugs]. I was always using. My disbarment and incarceration was the end result of that life."

Cates said he has since paid back all of the money to the clients he defrauded as a paralegal. He also remarried and has a young son.

He said he has not used alcohol or drugs since starting his second jail sentence in April 2000. While in jail, he decided to use his personal experiences to help counsel others.

After his release from jail, Cates started as a busboy and soon worked his way into a job as a drug and alcohol counselor in a structured living facility for addicts.

In April 2004, with encouragement and financial help from owners of a halfway house who befriended him, Cates opened John's Place, a 23-bed facility in Fort Lauderdale that provides overnight housing. A year later, he was housing 147 men in several facilities in the area.

"There is such an acute need for facilities for people that are in early recovery," Cates said.

While managing his own facilities, Cates was hired as a counselor at Treatment Solutions in Fort Lauderdale and promoted to chief operating officer of the fledgling company. He recently became a co-owner.

Gus Crocco, CEO of Treatment Solutions, said Cates impressed him with his sincerity and their shared goal of wanting to help recovering addicts.

"We are a small company, but from the beginning we had good people working together doing the right thing, always trying to help people, not just make a buck," Crocco said.

He said Treatment Solutions does not require that clients leave treatment after insurance or an ability to pay ends.

"If we feel a client is not ready to leave then they don't go out the door," Crocco said. "It does make us different. We try to balance both the need and the ability to pay. We feel it's our obligation to the person who is recovering."

Cates agrees: "Recovery doesn't happen in one or two weeks. You have to take time out of your life to establish a recovering identity."

He said the focus of their program is to get clients through the third step or "acceptance" of the Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous programs.

"If you have acceptance, you have the hope that there is something that is greater than yourself," Cates said.

To contact John Cates, call 954-907-1673. For information about Treatment Solutions, go to www.mytreatmentsolutions.com or call 866-533-4357, and for more on John's Place recovery facilities, visit www.johnsrecoveryplaces.com.