Lucido seeking justice or playing politics?
Governor accuses prosecutor of grandstanding; he says he’s ‘seeking truth’
Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido has launched an initiative to make it easier for individuals to submit potential criminal complaints against the state or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for deaths related to the placement of COVID-19 patients in nursing homes.
Lucido said at a news conference Thursday he and his office has received “hundreds” of informal complaints from relatives of those who have died in a nursing home or have suffered permanent health ailments after they were moved from a facility where they sought care into a “hub” nursing home. Criminal complaints have been filed in with police in Warren and Shelby Township, he added.
Lucido, a Republican, said he is not “going after anyone, never have,” in response to Democrat Whitmer calling his efforts “shameful political attacks based in neither fact nor reality.”
“I am seeking the truth because the families of lost loved ones deserve to know the truth,” Lucido said. “Those seniors have died without their loved ones holding their hand. I want to stop all the calls, all the heartache.”
He added: “If anyone thinks
they’re above the law in his administration, think again.”
The governor points out Paula Cunningham, state director of the AARP, and Eric Schneidewind, former national AARP director, have said they supported Whitmer’s efforts.
In addition, the University of Michigan’s Center for Health and Transformation found the process was “logical and appropriate,” and that the infection rate in the hubs were not greater than the county’s rates.
Lucido said he has set up a 3-page form available on the office’s web site that a potential complainant can fill out and provide to their local police department. He conceded it is possible no charges will be filed against anyone.
“A team of subject matter experts and specialists will be assigned to review and report to me the suggested disposition of each claim,” he said. “It may be that a referral to a state or federal agency will be the best place to provide what our work has found. It may be that there is a rational, justifiable, lawful explanation for what is alleged to have occurred.
“But with the primary concern being on the welfare of our most vulnerable and elderly, these questions must be allowed to be asked and answered by competent authority.
“My concern is that we look at this in light most favorable to those that need this closure, they need this opportunity to find the questions that were not answered. All we’re asking for is that opportunity.”
Lucido also announced he is seeking to set up an “elderly and vulnerable adult death review board” to look at the deaths of elderly people in nursing home. The formation of such a “team” is allowed by law to be set up by county Medical Examiner Dr. Daniel Spitz. The board would consist of various entities including law enforcement, the Prosecutor’s Office and elderly care, he said.
The board would be similar to a death review board that looks into child deaths.
Lucido said the board would establish protocols of the board’s role related to investigations of cases. He did not say if charges are warranted what they would be, adding he is looking at two misdemeanor charges.
Ted Goodman, spokesman for the state GOP, said Whitmer and her administration need to be transparent about what occurred at the nursing homes.
“Gov. Whitmer and her administration continue to refuse to answer questions regarding nursing home deaths,” Goodman said in a written statement. “Michiganders deserve to know the true impact of the state’s orders when dealing with nursing homes and the most vulnerable members of tour society.”
But Lucido’s former colleague, Republican Sen. Ed McBroom, has said they “have not seen any evidence or testimony that says that a nursing home was forced to take someone against their will.”
Lucido retorted that the executive order in question says nursing homes “shall” take the coronavirus-positive patients.
“Executive order 202050 says, ‘You shall take a Covid patient.’ Not maybe, not probably but shall,” he said.
Critics of Lucido pointed out he voted last June against an amendment to Senate Bill 690, which would have added $100 million to $193 million in grants already approved for skilled nursing centers, according to Michiganvotes. org. The amendment failed by a 22-16 vote, with all Republicans voting no.
Lucido had an excused absence from the senate late Dec. 18 when, among other things, it voted to provide $3.3 million for hospitals with nursing home residents, $2 million to enhance the perday per-resident allocation given to nursing homes and $22.5 million “for coronavirus response activities for testing of vulnerable populations in nursing homes, adult foster care, homes for the aged, community testing sites, homeless and domestic violence shelters, and rapid/mobile response teams for hospitals and nursing homes.”
The governor’s advocates also point to the CHT study that concluded:
• “COVID-19 infection rates in nursing homes correlated with staff infection rates; this was consistent with community prevalence.
• No significant evidence of transmission of COVID-19 between patients admitted from hospitals to nursing home residents in hub facilities.
• Nursing home resident COVID-19 prevalence positively correlated with county COVID-19 prevalence rates for both hub and non-hub nursing homes.”