Both former superintendent Bennett Walsh and former medical director Dr. David Clinton will avoid time in jail, following the latest proceedings in their cases Tuesday.
The two men had been indicted by a grand jury in 2020, on charges over their handling of the pandemic at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home.
Dozens of veterans died in the wake of the outbreak in spring 2020 – a crisis that attracted national attention and led to investigations by the state and multiple criminal neglect charges against both Walsh and Clinton.
Those charges were dismissed in 2021, when Hampden Superior Court Judge Edward McDonough Jr. found no "reasonably trustworthy evidence" that the officials' actions harmed veterans.
Two years later, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court moved to reinstate the criminal charges, and McDonough presided again during the latest proceedings.
Prosecutor Kevin Lownds, a Deputy Chief with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, emphasized that both men had acted recklessly during the outbreak.
“The Commonwealth contends that Mr. Walsh was not telling state officials or not blowing the whistle to state officials soon enough, or nearly aggressively enough, to ensure that state officials would come in and assist in addressing this crisis,” he told the court.
The actions included a decision to consolidate two dementia units into one, putting infected residents in contact with those who hadn’t contracted coronavirus.
During Walsh’s case, Lownds described “extraordinarily bad” conditions witnesses came across when visiting the facility – conditions the state contends were avoidable if authorities outside the home were alerted sooner.
“The witnesses from the command center said veterans were not being hydrated or fed,” he said. “Family members who saw the consolidation said they had to step in and help and hydrate people. Some individuals witnessed veterans who were walking around naked, or in johnnies, which are effectively underwear. The conditions of this unit were extraordinarily bad.”
The prosecution sought three years of probation, including one year of home confinement.
Defense attorneys for both men requested that the cases be continued without a finding for three months, under agreed upon conditions, while also acknowledging facts from the case that could lead to a guilty verdict.
In Walsh’s case, his attorney, Michael Jennings, took time to detail the former director’s Marines service and claimed his client had reservations about taking on a role at the facility due to his qualifications, but that he was encouraged to do so by others.
Walsh’s 2016 hiring was the subject of a lengthy report conducted by the Massachusetts Inspector General.
Jennings also described how the outbreak occurred during the beginning of the pandemic, and that the Soldiers Home was far from the only nursing facility caught off-guard by the virus.
“Perhaps hurling blame, and subjecting the defendants to imprisonment might salve our conscience,” Jennings said. “But criminalizing blame will do nothing to prevent further tragedy, or help unravel the complex reasons why the response to the Soldiers’ Home, and so many nursing homes, proved inadequate in the nascent days of the pandemic.”
McDonough ultimately accepted the defenses’ requests in both cases.
In a statement obtained by the Associated Press, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell voiced her disappointment with the decision, stating she wanted the affected families and the state’s veterans know that the AG’s office did quote “everything it could to seek accountability.”
The state also previously agreed to a $56 million settlement with families of the veterans affected in 2022.
Work on a new facility, the Holyoke Veterans’ Home, began in 2023.
