Beloff, wife sue Fla. drug-rehab center over her treatment

FORMER CITY Councilman Leland Beloff and his wife, Diane, are suing a luxury Florida drug-rehab center, claiming its treatment caused her to suffer a seizure and other medical problems.

The Beloffs claim that Diane Beloff suffered a seizure and "change in mental status" in May, two weeks after checking into Seaside Palm Beach for an addiction to painkillers.

The complaint, filed Jan. 8 in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, contends that the Beloffs agreed to pay $49,500 for a 30-day treatment. It accuses doctors of removing Beloff from her medication too quickly, resulting in permanent memory loss, brain damage and insomnia.

Leland Beloff, 70, a former boxer and state representative, resigned from Council in 1987, after being convicted in federal court of extortion in a plot with former mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo to extort $1 million from developer Willard Rouse. He was paroled in 1994, after serving five years of a 10-year prison sentence. Beloff owns and operates Harlee Manor, an assisted-living facility in Delaware County.