Two former officials of a veterans home in Massachusetts, where a severe COVID-19 outbreak resulted in at least 76 deaths, have settled their criminal case.
Two former officials of a veterans home in Massachusetts where at least 76 people died in one of the nation's worst COVID-19 outbreaks in a long-term care facility settled their criminal case Tuesday without having to go to jail. Bennett Walsh, the former superintendent of the Veterans’ Home in Holyoke, and Dr.
Prosecutors had sought guilty pleas and three years probation on the charges including one year of home confinement. They cited the bad conditions and lack of staffing at the facility and the need for a sentence that 'merits real consequences.
That ruling prompted anger from the state. 'Today the justice system failed the families who lost their loved ones at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home,' state Attorney General Andrea Campbell 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, a former Marine who resigned after criminal charges were filed, had no supervisory experience in a health care setting or skilled nursing facility when he was hired. Yet according to state law, such experience was not required of the home’s superintendent at the time. In 2021, McDonough dismissed the charges.
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