Family of homicide victim sues owners of unlicensed North Texas home for ‘untimely death’

The family of a man whose death has been linked to unlicensed group homes in Arlington and Mansfield is suing the owner and her company for gross negligence, according to court records.

Christopher Devendorf, the brother of Steven Kelly Pankratz, filed the civil suit Thursday in Tarrant County. Pankratz’s death on Jan. 12 from mixed drug toxicity in a boarding home operated by Regla Becquer was recently ruled a homicide by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Becquer has been in custody since March 11 when she was charged with endangering another resident of the homes. On June 20 she was charged with Pankratz’s murder. According to her arrest warrant affidavit, she is accused of giving handfuls of unprescribed pills to the victim.

In all, a total of 20 deaths have been linked to Becquer’s homes and are being investigated by Arlington police.

Devendorf’s attorney, Dan Moore, told the Star-Telegram that preventing future victims was a major reason they decided to move ahead with the lawsuit.

“We don’t know if there will be any compensation for the families or not,” Moore said. “We don’t know if there’s anything available. But ultimately, if we can stop this from happening to somebody else, that’s more important.”

Devendorf is suing Becquer and her company Love and Caring for People LLC for Pankratz’s “untimely death,” according to the lawsuit.

The placing agency who told Pankratz about the homes is also listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, as is the Indiana-based company who owns the property of Becquer’s Mansfield group home, where Pankratz was taken in October 2022 after a lengthy stay in the hospital.

According to Moore, all the defendants are tied together to the same extent in the lawsuit at this time, but that could change as more details are uncovered. Additional defendants may be added and some current defendants may be dropped.

“In Texas, when we file suits, we oftentimes include anybody who was related to the incident, so that we can do discovery and find out exactly how all the parties are interrelated,” Moore said. “Those were the parties that we found that were, you know, close.”

The lawsuit lists 16 separate claims against Becquer and the other defendants, including assault and battery, premises liability for an untreated injury Pankratz sustained when he arrived at the Mansfield home, corporate negligence/civil conspiracy for failing to register the homes with the proper state federal authorities and unjust enrichment.

“Mr. Pankratz’s condition gradually declined, physically and financially,” the lawsuit states. “Upon information and belief, Defendants utilized Decedent’s credit, financial accounts, documents governing estates and medical disorientation to profit financially in a variety of manners.”

Moore said they are investigating the alleged financial crimes. Devendorf sent Pankratz money at one point after learning his money had run out, but the money he sent also disappeared, he said.

“It’s difficult to go back and try to piece together his bank accounts and credit card statements and so forth, to try to figure out, you know, where the money went,” Moore said.

The fact that Love and Caring for People failed to register with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission “constitutes negligence” and a violation of the Texas Health and Safety Code, according to the lawsuit.

“Steven Kelly Pankratz was one of the class of persons the statute was intended to protect,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff suffered the same harm the statute was intending to prevent.”

Devendorf is requesting a jury trial, over $1 million in damages and “a demand for judgment for all the other relief to which Plaintiff may be entitled.”

The criminal investigation into Becquer and her company is ongoing, according to police. The work is slow going because many of the 20 individuals who died under or shortly after leaving Becquer’s care were cremated or buried without autopsies or their bodies were donated to science before the investigation started.

The results of one autopsy are still pending.

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