Baker’s signature on Bennett Walsh’s hiring is part of his legacy
The formal letter appointing Bennett Walsh to the job of running the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home bears the signatures of then-Governor Charlie Baker and Marylou Sudders, Baker’s secretary of health and human services. Next to her signature, Sudders wrote “Congratulations.” Next to his, Baker wrote, “Thanks.”
Walsh, a Marine Corps veteran whose family has deep political connections in Western Massachusetts, had no experience or background in health care. That’s the starting point for a disastrous tenure at the Holyoke facility that ended with the deaths of at least 76 veterans from a COVID-19 outbreak that began in March 2020. For decisions that turned out to be lethal, Walsh was charged with elder neglect. This week, Hampden Superior Court Judge Edward J. McDonough allowed Walsh to admit to sufficient facts to support a guilty verdict for his role in the veterans’ deaths. With that, Walsh acknowledged that if the case proceeded, the prosecution would be able to present sufficient evidence for conviction. In exchange, he got three months of probation and no jail time. The state was asking for three years of probation; the charges carry a maximum of three years in prison. Laurie MandevilleBeaudette, whose father, Jim Mandeville, was one of the veterans who died, told the Globe the judge’s ruling is “less than a slap on the wrist.”
On this one, I agree with Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr about the enduring power of the “hackerama.” Walsh has the same political ties he had in 2016, when Baker signed that letter of appointment, and it’s hard not to think they are still an asset. As the Globe Spotlight Team reported, Walsh’s family roots trace back to a grandfather who served on the Massachusetts Governor’s Council. His mother served on the Springfield City Council. His father was a former Springfield City Council president and retired director of veterans services for the city. His uncle, William Bennett, was a longtime Hampden County district attorney — who also served as his nephew’s lawyer in the Soldiers’ Home case.
With his plea, Walsh does at least take some personal responsibility for actions that led to those veteran deaths. Baker still hasn’t taken personal responsibility for hiring someone with no qualifications for the job. At first, Baker said he hadn’t met Walsh until his swearing in, even though he met with him before he signed the appointment letter. Presented with evidence, he said he “forgot.” After a former federal prosecutor that he hired to investigate reported that management mistakes and failures contributed to the deaths, Baker said “that one’s on us” — not “it’s on me.” Meanwhile, in an interview with MassLive given as he was leaving office, Baker took credit for changing the management team after the 76 veterans died. He didn’t mention that Walsh’s troubling deficiencies as a manager were welldocumented long before the pandemic hit.
It was Maura Healey — then attorney general, now the governor — who announced criminal charges against Walsh and David Clinton, the former medical director of the facility. The prosecution of the case focused on a management decision to consolidate two dementia units into one, which resulted in putting infected patients together with those who were not yet infected. Healey said that Walsh and Clinton were ultimately responsible for that decision, which led to “tragic and deadly results.” However, in 2021, the charges were thrown out by McDonough, who said there was no “reasonably trustworthy evidence” that their actions harmed veterans. But last April, the Supreme Judicial Court restored the criminal charges, with a majority of justices agreeing that prosecutors should have the chance to make the case for criminal liability. Now, McDonough, the judge who threw out the case to begin with, essentially agreed to drop the charges against Walsh.
At the time Healey brought the case, it was believed to be the first US prosecution of nursing home caregivers in connection with the pandemic. Asked for comment about the outcome, a Healey spokesperson said, “For Governor Healey, this case was always about the families who tragically lost loved ones at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home.”
The deaths of the 76 veterans triggered a package of legislative reforms that were signed into law by Baker in 2022. One of them includes the requirement that the superintendent of a veterans’ home be a licensed nursing home administrator and a veteran or someone who has experience working with veterans in a nursing home or long-term care setting. Hopefully that means someone like Walsh can never waltz into a position like that again. But it doesn’t necessarily mean the best candidate for that job will always get it. So much about politics is about who you know, not necessarily what you know, and about how much a hire will help the person who is doing the hiring — in this case, the governor.
Baker has said that for him, what happened at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home represented the “biggest and worst” moment of the pandemic in Massachusetts. Yet he has never fully acknowledged what brought him and the soldiers’ home veterans to that moment — his signature on that letter of appointment for Walsh.