A fertility specialist from California is embroiled in a legal battle as former patients accuse him of unlawfully retaining their embryos. The group has filed a lawsuit alleging that the doctor refused to return the embryos to their rightful owners.

Attorney Robert Marcereau represented 26 families at a press conference on Tuesday that was carried by several local media outlets, telling the media that fertility specialist Dr. Brian Acacio had been evicted from his office in Laguna Niguel after failing to pay rent for a year. In December 2025, Acacio shuttered his clinic, “secretly rounded up all of his patients” embryos, loaded them into a truck, and drove them four hours north to Bakersfield,” the lawsuit says.

Documents related to the case, accessed by KCBS, a Los Angeles CBS affiliate, reveal that the doctor’s medical license was suspended over allegations of substance abuse, effective December 30, 2025. However, the lawsuit claims that the doctor, Acacio, continued his practice regardless of the suspension. Marina Reyes, one of the plaintiffs, recounted to KCBS that Acacio conducted an “invasive ultrasound” on her shortly after the suspension began, on January 2.

At a press conference, another patient, Christina Chandler, recalled an unsettling experience where Acacio allegedly administered a fluid ultrasound while having an IV inserted in his arm.

Before the complete suspension, an interim order was in place starting October 8, 2025, imposing certain restrictions. The lawsuit outlines that during this period leading to December, patients endured multiple issues, such as IVF treatment setbacks, medication mishaps, scheduling conflicts, unexpected clinic closures, billing controversies, and challenges concerning embryo storage and transfer.

The lawsuit’s primary objective is to retrieve the embryos Acacio allegedly seized. It is reported that by December 2025, he was under threat of eviction for failing to pay $243,000 in rent. The lawsuit alleges that Acacio vacated his office without notifying his patients and transported the embryos to an undisclosed location in Bakersfield, California.

During the press conference, Marcereau expressed grave concerns, stating, “To this day, we do not know exactly where those embryos are or whether they are safe.”

He said Acacio was “holding these patients’ embryos hostage” and refusing to give them back to the families unless they agreed to sign a document “absolving him of any responsibility for his conduct.”

Berenice Cervantes, another one of Acacio’s patients, told Los Angeles-based Nexstar affiliate KTLA, “It’s like a hostage situation. I feel like they were kidnapped. I don’t know where they are, we don’t know where they are,” referring to the embryos.

The families who joined the lawsuit are seeking a court order to force the return of their embryos.

Acacio declined Law&Crime’s request for comment, citing the ongoing litigation.