Walsh admits neglect in Soldiers’ Home outbreak
Ex-superintendent avoids jail with change of plea
Two former administrators of the Holyoke Soldiers Home, where at least 76 veterans died in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, have admitted to charges of neglect but will serve no prison time.
Hampden Superior Court Judge Edward McDonough accepted former superintendent Bennett Walsh’s plea admitting to sufficient facts to five counts of neglect of an elder related to Walsh’s decision to combine multiple dementia care units into one in March 2020, which in turn led to the deaths of numerous residents who had not been exposed to the virus before the change.
McDonough ordered the case be continued for three months without a finding and ordered Walsh to comply with probationary conditions including that Walsh not contact the victims’ families or work in a medical field. McDonough did not impose probation itself. This finding was identical to the defense’s recommendation.
The prosecution recommended that Walsh serve three years of probation with the first year under home confinement. The prosecutor said the recommendation for only probation and not any prison was made because Walsh had a clean criminal record. The maximum penalty for each count was three years in state prison.
At the same hearing, Dr. David Clinton, the the home’s former medical director, also admitted to sufficient facts in his case and received the same continued finding.
This conclusion left state Attorney General Andrea Campbell “disappointed.”
“Today the justice system failed the families who lost their loved ones at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home,” she said in a statement. “I am disappointed and disheartened with the Court’s decision, and want these families and our veterans to know my office did everything it could to seek accountability. We will continue to be vigilant in prosecuting cases of elder abuse and neglect.”
Walsh said during his change of plea that he accepted there were sufficient facts to convict him of neglect, but that he does “not admit that such a decision was wanton and reckless in light of the situation.”
Walsh and his attorney said that Walsh, a career military man, had assessed the dire staffing shortage in light of the current guidance coming from state and federal leaders in those confused, early days of COVID.
Associated Press materials were used in this report.