Nursing home probe on after Cuomo’s exit
Sexual harassment allegations cost New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo his job. Now, many want to see him answer for a scandal that cut to the heart of his reputation as a pandemic hero and may have had life-and-death consequences — his administration’s handling of outbreaks in nursing homes.
Months before a blistering investigation found Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women, the same attorney general concluded that the administration understated the true death toll in nursing homes by thousands and that fatalities may have been fueled by a state order that forced such homes to accept recovering COVID-19 patients.
Whatever action may lie ahead on the harassment claims, families of the more than 15,000 New Yorkers who died in nursing homes say they want accountability, too, and are urging state lawmakers and the U.S. Justice Department to keep investigating Cuomo after he leaves.
“The nursing home people and their families have not had a day of reckoning,” said Vivian Zayas, who blames Cuomo for her mother’s death in a West Islip, New York, nursing home.
“This not a victory yet,” she said. “A victory is when the whole nursing home scandal is blown open.”
The Assembly had been moving toward impeachment of Cuomo before he announced his resignation, and his handling of nursing homes was set to be a part of that.
Lawmakers are now weighing whether they can and should push forward with impeachment once Cuomo is out of office in two weeks. One member of the Judiciary Committee said impeachment would amount to “vengeance.” Other members of the committee have pushed to at least issue a report.
“If he committed a crime, just because he resigns those investigations are not going to go away,” said Assembly member Ron Kim, a Democrat from Queens, whose uncle died in a nursing home. “Justice for the women is the first step. Getting the justice for the families who lost loved ones is a longer journey because it involves a whole ecosystem.”
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who will become governor after Cuomo’s departure, vowed her administration will be “fully transparent” when it comes to releasing data on nursing home deaths.
A federal investigation could also bring answers. The Trump Justice Department began requesting nursing home records from New York a year ago and widened its inquiry after a report by The Associated Press found the state’s official toll of COVID19 deaths in long-term care facilities was probably a significant undercount.
A Justice Department inquiry into possible civil rights violations at government-run nursing homes ended without triggering a full-blown investigation. But broader examinations by federal prosecutors remain alive.
Its focus includes whether the state manipulated data on nursing home deaths and whether Cuomo and his aides provided the Justice Department with false or incomplete data, which could constitute a federal crime.