AG confirms Brighton Rehab is part of state investigation

Hoping to generate more sources for his investigators, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Wednesday confirmed what many had suspected for more than a month: Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Beaver County is one of several nursing homes his office is investigating for criminal neglect during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The reports of conditions and practices at the Brighton Rehab and Wellness Center are deeply troubling,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “I can confirm that Brighton is one of the subjects of our criminal investigations into neglect at nursing homes during the pandemic.”

Brighton has had the worst outbreak of COVID-19 of any nursing home in Pennsylvania, with 332 of the for-profit nursing home’s residents testing positive since the end of March and at least 82 of them dying after

testing positive.

Even though the families of some of those who have already been interviewed by attorney general investigators had revealed there was an investigation, the AG’s office until now had refused to confirm Brighton was one of the subjects of a statewide investigation Mr. Shapiro first announced in May.

Though an unknown number of other nursing homes across the state are also being investigated for criminal neglect during the pandemic, Mr. Shapiro still has not said how many homes total are being investigated or named any home other than Brighton so far.

In an interview with the Post-Gazette later Wednesday, Mr. Shapiro said he decided to finally confirm Brighton was one of the nursing homes being investigated because “the reports and the conditions and practices at Brighton are deeply troubling to me.”

“I think there are people in the public, particularly those with loved ones affiliated with Brighton, who may have information that’s helpful to our investigation,” he said. “A big part of the reason why we confirmed Brighton as one of the subjects today is to encourage anyone with information regarding neglect at Brighton to contact us at a special email hotline.”

He said anyone with information about possible criminal neglect — and not just violations of regulations or guidelines that would best be dealt with by the state Department of Health or other agencies — is invited to send an email to Neglect-COVID@attorneygeneral.gov.

“People need to know that we’re looking at this facility and, if they have information that’s helpful to our investigation, to alert us,” Mr. Shapiro said.

He said with the ongoing pandemic and the desire to help prevent problems at nursing homes from continuing, he wanted residents’ families and the public to know “we are working at a rapid pace and doing everything we can to gather relevant information and hold anyone accountable who has engaged in criminal wrongdoing.”

“Obviously, there has been growing concern about Brighton and other facilities,” he said. “And we’re going to try to wrap up this investigation as quickly as possible.”

Jodi Gill, who filed a since-withdrawn lawsuit in April over what she viewed as poor oversight at Brighton, where her father, Glenn, 82, is a resident, said she was “thrilled” to hear Mr. Shapiro confirmed Brighton was being criminally investigated, something she had known since she was interviewed by investigators in late June.

“To me, [confirming Brighton is being investigated] speaks to the gravity of the situation at Brighton and the sheer need to address it to protect the lives of our loved ones who are still there,” she said.

Barbara Peer, whose boyfriend, Rich Edmonds, 81, died on April 14 after contracting COVID-19 at Brighton, said she was “very surprised” Mr. Shapiro confirmed the criminal investigation, “but I’m very happy.”

In late July, Ms. Peer, like Ms. Gill, was interviewed by an attorney general investigator as part of the case, though “at the time, they were unwilling to confirm for me what they were doing.”

She said the interview was about an hour long and the investigator asked “me to describe everything that I could think of that I saw during Rich’s time there and also the injustices I saw there.”

Ms. Peer, of Coraopolis, said it was encouraging to hear Mr. Shapiro is confirming the criminal investigation. “That gives me a lot of hope,” she said. “Because I feel very strongly for the people still there, and I hope something can be done to help them.”