Leaders Indicted At Soldiers' Home Where At Least 76 People Died In COVID-19 Outbreak

Former leaders at a state-run nursing home for veterans in Holyoke, Mass., are facing criminal neglect charges, after an investigation found their "substantial errors and failures" likely worsened a COVID-19 outbreak that killed at least 76 veterans earlier this year.

Bennett Walsh and David Clinton — who served as the superintendent and medical director, respectively, of the Soldiers' Home in Holyoke when a deadly COVID-19 outbreak struck in the spring – have been indicted on criminal neglect charges, state Attorney General Maura Healey announced on Friday.

"Walsh and Clinton were responsible for the decision to combine 42 veterans – some COVID-positive, and others not even showing any symptoms of COVID – into a single unit that usually accommodates 25 beds," Healey said.

The two made the fateful decision to combine two dementia units into one in late March. The plan called for putting six or seven veterans into rooms meant to house only four people. To deal with an overflow, nine additional beds were put into a dining room, just a few feet apart. Some of those veterans had symptoms for COVID-19, and others didn't, the attorney general said. She added that residents were allowed to mingle, regardless of their COVID-19 status.