Two former leaders at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home faced a judge Tuesday, changing their not guilty pleas in the neglect cases against them to an admission of sufficient facts. Right now, neither man is set to face jail time — a result families say is a miscarriage of justice.
Bennett Walsh, the former head of the home, made the change in plea in a criminal case over the deaths of more than 70 elderly veteran residents of the facility in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walsh is facing five counts of neglect. At Tuesday afternoon's hearing in Hampshire Superior Court, he admitted to sufficient facts on all five counts, meaning he's admitting a jury could find him guilty at a trial. This is not a guilty plea, but it does mean he has waived his right to that jury trial. During the hearing the prosecution had requested three years of probation and the first 12 months of it served in home confinement. Walsh would also be asked to agree not to work in health care-related professions.
Instead the judge took Walsh's request, that the case was continued without finding for three months.
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The case first came to light when Gov. Maura Healey was the attorney general — and it ended up becoming one of the deadliest COVID outbreaks at a long-term care facility in the country.
Walsh and David Clinton, Holyoke Soldiers' Home's former medical director, were serving as high-ranking officials at the facility back in March 2022, when they allegedly made to combine 42 residents from two dementia units into a single unit that typically held 25 beds. Some of the veterans were symptomatic for COVID-19, and some were asymptomatic.
Clinton also changed his plea to an admission of sufficient facts during the hearing. His case was also continued for three months without finding under the same conditions as Walsh.
This means neither man will face jail time, if they meet the conditions set Tuesday.
The court conditions that are in place for three months prohibit Walsh from visiting the Holyoke Soldiers' Home without permission, from contacting the families and from working in a managerial position in any long-term care facility. Clinton is not licensed to practice medicine anymore. He's also prohibited from contacting the families and visiting the home without permission. Both must obey the court orders and not break the law during that time.
This change of plea is technically not a guilty plea. It's just admitting to certain facts that, if the case went to trial, the defendant believes the prosecution would prove.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell expressed her disappointment at the decision.
"Today the justice system failed the families who lost their loved ones at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home. 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," she said. We will continue to be vigilant in prosecuting cases of elder abuse and neglect."
It was an emotional day for the families who lost loved ones.
"I think it's ridiculous. It's not even a slap on the wrist. It just wreaks of dirty politics. Family members I have spoken to are outraged," said Laurie Mandeville-Beaudette, whose dad died due to the outbreak. "He made the decision that led to all the deaths, and he tried covering them up."
"Our veterans and us. Our families are the ones who got the life sentence," said Susan Kenney, whose father, Air Force veteran Charles Lowell, died at the home at age 78.
In 2020, Kenney she scrawled "Is My Dad Alive" on her car after not getting answers about his condition as the COVID cases increased. Before Tuesday's court appearance, she wrote, "Don't let their deaths go unpunished."
“They deserve way better care than they received there. They did not die with honor and dignity,” Kenney said.
Colleen Croteau's father, Air Force veteran Donald Bushey, spent the last hours of his life in a bed alone in the home's dining room, which was ill-equipped to handle sick patients and offered no privacy.
Croteau didn't want Walsh, who is a Marine veteran, to go to prison, but she wanted some form of punishment.
"I can't imagine, if he's a human being, how he can sleep at night knowing that he failed fellow veterans," Croteau said.
She said her father deserved a dignified death.
"What happened there was not fit for an animal, never mind a human being, and a human being who served his country in two wars," she said.
These criminal charges against Walsh and Clinton were dismissed last year but then reinstated by the state's Supreme Judicial Court.
When we asked Walsh if he had any comment or anything he would like to say to the families after the hearing, he referred us to his lawyers.
