Two charged in deaths at veterans home

Two former leaders of a Massachusetts veterans’ home were indicted on charges of criminal neglect in connection to a coronavirus outbreak that contributed to the deaths of at least 76 residents, the state’s attorney general said Friday.

What happened

Bennett Walsh, 50, and Dr. David Clinton, 71, were indicted Thursday by a state grand jury on charges related to their work at the facility, the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, Mass. Walsh had been the superintendent of the facility, and Clinton its medical director.

Each man was indicted on five counts for two charges; the specific charges were for caretakers who “wantonly or recklessly” permit or cause bodily injury and abuse, neglect or mistreatment of an older or disabled person. The criminal neglect charge carries a term of up to three years, and the serious bodily injury charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years for each count, Healey said.

Walsh’s lawyer, Tracy A. Miner, said in an email that he planned to plead not guilty. A lawyer for Clinton could not immediately be reached for comment.

Why it matters

“We believe this is the first criminal case in the country brought against those involved in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the state attorney general, Maura Healey, said at a news conference Friday. The men face felony charges and if convicted they could

face years or even decades in prison, she added. “We allege that the actions of these defendants during the COVID-19 outbreak at the facility put veterans at higher risk of infection and death and warrant criminal charges,” she said.

What investigators found

Investigators focused on the events of late March, when staff members combined two dementia wards with infected veterans and healthy residents, “increasing the exposure of asymptomatic veterans to the virus,” the attorney general’s office said.

Because of staffing shortages, the facility consolidated the units, which had a total of 42 residents who had different COVID-19 statuses, the office said. Residents who were positive or symptomatic were placed six in a room that typically held four veterans, it said.

Residents believed to be asymptomatic were placed in nine beds in the dining room, where they were “a few feet apart from each other” and next to the room where the infected patients were, it said. “The residents in the consolidated unit were allegedly mingling together, regardless of COVID-19 status,” the office said.