Two former employees of a Massachusetts veterans’ nursing home that experienced a deadly outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) reached a settlement Tuesday to avoid prison, the state’s attorney general said.
Bennett Walsh, former director of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, and David Clinton, former medical director at the home, are the victims of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which killed at least 76 people in 2020. He was charged with five counts of negligence over the deadly outbreak. In Hampshire Superior Court on Tuesday, the state attorney general’s office announced that both men had withdrawn their earlier pleas of not guilty.
State prosecutors asked the court to sentence Mr. Walsh and Mr. Clinton to one year of home confinement and three years of probation. Mr. Walsh and Mr. Clinton both asked the judge to proceed without finding, which would mean each finding that there were sufficient facts to convict.
According to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, the judge granted Walsh and Clinton’s request and ordered them not to work at the nursing home, not to have any contact with the victim’s family, and to leave their homes without permission. ordered not to be present.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell criticized the judge’s decision in a statement.
“Today, the justice system rendered helpless the families who lost loved ones at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home. We want you to know that we have done everything in our power to hold them accountable, and we will continue to be vigilant in prosecuting cases of elder abuse and neglect.”
The two have pleaded not guilty to related charges in 2020. to their decision Consolidating two dementia units in a long-term facility. One had a positive case and the other was asymptomatic. The case was later dismissed by Hampden Superior Court Judge Edward McDonough, but the state attorney’s office filed an appeal. appeal the decision In 2021.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court reconsidered the charges last year. Associated Press report.
A 2022 report on veterans homes, covering the years 2016 to 2020, found that Mr. Walsh said: lacked leadership skills You need to be a facility manager. The Associated Press noted that he had no experience working in a medical facility or nursing home before being hired, but state law at the time did not require that experience.
The Associated Press contributed.
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