HOLYOKE, MASS. (WHDH) - The former superintendent and former medical director of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home will be arraigned next month in connection with a deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the Western Mass. facility, officials announced.
Former Superintendent Bennett Walsh, 50, of Springfield, who resigned earlier this month, and former Medical Director Dr. David Clinton, 71, of South Hadley, will be arraigned Nov. 5 in Hampden Superior Court on five counts of criminal neglect and five counts of causing serious bodily injuries to an elderly or disabled person for alleged decisions they made that lead to the deaths of 76 veterans.
Walsh was fired in June after investigators released a 174-page report detailing “terrible errors” made by the superintendent and his leadership team that helped the disease run rampant at the home.
Investigators concluded that Walsh was unfit to preside over the facility, especially amid a pandemic that exacted an unimaginable toll of death and devastation throughout the United States.
The most substantial error made by the home’s leadership team came on March 27, when they decided to move all veterans from one of the two locked dementia units into the other locked unit, where a total of 42 residents would be crowded in with veterans already living there, investigators said.
At the time, each unit was said to have had some veterans who were COVID-19 positive, some who were suspected of having the disease, and others who were displaying no symptoms.
Mass. Attorney General Maura Healey said the charges against Walsh and Clinton are related to the deaths of five asymptomatic veterans who were moved into the dining room of the consolidated unit.
“We are alleging that these decisions, which were ultimately the responsibility of Walsh and Clinton, were reckless and increased the likelihood that asymptomatic veterans would contract COVID-19 and put them at higher risk of death and harm,” Healey said in a statement.
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