A Los Angeles judge approved a $3 million settlement in July 2026 for the family of Litzy Lara Banuelos, the former adult performer known as Emily Willis, resolving a negligence lawsuit against Summit Malibu after she suffered irreversible brain damage during a 2024 stay for ketamine addiction. The facility and its parent company, Malibu Lighthouse Treatment Centers, denied any wrongdoing and made no admission of liability.
Banuelos, then 25, checked herself into the Malibu facility on January 27, 2024. Court filings state she had been consuming five to six grams of ketamine daily for roughly a year. She paid $45,500 in cash for a planned 21-day program. Facility records listed her at 5-foot-6 and 100 pounds, about 16 pounds underweight by their nutritional screen. Drug tests on arrival came back clean. The lawsuit alleges she was never referred to a physician or nutritionist despite a history of anorexia, bladder inflammation, night terrors, depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
Her condition declined over the following days. Notes from January 30 described her as disheveled, frail, and disoriented, with difficulty walking and classified as extremely medically impaired. Staff recommended urgent care or a hospital on multiple occasions. According to the complaint, she refused. On February 3, paramedics were called for breathing trouble; she again declined transport. The next afternoon, around 12:10 p.m. on February 4, a nurse found her unresponsive in bed, without a pulse, eyes open and pupils fixed. The clinician assigned to monitor her had left for lunch at 11:40 a.m. and did not return until 12:30 p.m. Observation logs carried his initials for times he was allegedly off-site. A nurse began CPR. Paramedics continued for 30 to 40 minutes before restoring a heartbeat. Prolonged oxygen deprivation caused anoxic brain injury.
Yesenia Lara Cooper, Banuelos’s mother and legal conservator, filed suit in Santa Monica Superior Court in December 2024 (case 24SMCV06328). The complaint accused Summit Malibu of neglect, abandonment, and failure to address a visible medical crisis, including the absence of any physician evaluation during the stay. Attorneys for the facility countered that Banuelos repeatedly refused medications, monitoring advice, and outside care, and that staff lacked authority to force hospital transport. They maintained she was regularly checked and that no negligence occurred. Doctors never determined the precise trigger for the respiratory arrest.
Judge Susan Bryant-Deason approved the $3 million settlement on July 15, 2026. Judicial sign-off was required because Banuelos is legally incapacitated. After roughly $1 million in attorney fees and medical liens, she is expected to receive about $1.25 million, funds managed by her mother for long-term care. Family attorney James A. Morris Jr. wrote in a court declaration that he had lived with the case for nearly two years and could state with confidence that Banuelos is significantly injured, but that the case was no slam dunk. He noted that no one knows exactly what happened before she stopped breathing or whether the facility could have prevented the outcome given her condition on arrival.
Banuelos, now 27, remains largely nonverbal. Her mother told TMZ in late July that she communicates by tracking with her eyes and shaking her head, and understands roughly 80 percent of what is happening around her. She still needs help eating but can sleep independently and has resumed watching movies and television. Family accounts say she is relearning to walk with support from therapists after more than 10 surgeries. Cooper moved her to Mexico, where relatives provide round-the-clock care at lower cost, and the family has discussed possible neurological procedures in Spain aimed at stimulating speech and movement. Earlier court descriptions and some attorney statements painted a more limited picture of mobility, describing her as unable to move her body and only occasionally opening her eyes or making noises. Those accounts have not been fully reconciled in public reporting.
Before the injury, Banuelos was one of the highest-profile performers in the adult industry. She was named Penthouse Pet of the Month in May 2019 and won Female Performer of the Year at the 2021 AVN Awards. She later appeared in the 2023 science-fiction film Divinity. A separate defamation lawsuit she had filed against another performer was dismissed in 2025 because of her incapacity. A GoFundMe organized by her brother has raised more than $118,000 toward medical expenses.
The settlement ends more than two years of litigation without a trial or a formal finding on the allegations. Summit Malibu and Malibu Lighthouse Treatment Centers continue to deny liability. The money is intended for Banuelos’s ongoing care, which her family says will be lifelong. Exact medical records remain largely private, and the precise sequence in the minutes before she was found unresponsive is still known only through the competing accounts in the court file.
