Cases settled: 2 ex-officials of veterans home where 76 died in the pandemic avoid jail time
Two former officials of a Massachusetts veterans home where at least 76 people died during the COVID-19 pandemic will avoid jail time in the case
BOSTON (AP) — 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. David Clinton, the home's former medical director, were facing five counts of criminal neglect after the Massachusetts’ highest court overruled a lower court judge last year and reinstated the charges.
Theirs was the first criminal case brought in the country against anyone connected to nursing homes deaths during the pandemic.
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."
