Dozens of military veterans who lived in the Holyoke facility died of COVID-19, one of the deadliest outbreaks in a U.S. long-term care facility during the pandemic
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Former Holyoke Soldiers' Home Superintendent Bennett Walsh is set for a change-of-plea hearing in a criminal case over the deaths of dozens of elderly veteran residents of the facility in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walsh's change-of-plea hearing in the case — he faces five counts of neglect — is scheduled in Hampshire Superior Court for Tuesday afternoon.
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Sources say tell NBC10 Boston that Walsh won't face any jail time under a possible plea deal — which would involve a case disposition known as continued without finding — but would have to comply with certain court order for three months.
NBC10 Boston has reached out to Walsh's attorneys for comment.
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A case being continued without finding means the person who is accused admits to certain facts that, if the case went to trial, the defendant believes the prosecution would prove.
Last year, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court revived the criminal case against Walsh and and David Clinton, the Holyoke Soldiers' Home's former medical director, after a lower court dismissed grand jury indictments.
Clinton's trial is set to start April 3; he's pleaded not guilty. Walsh's trial had been also due to start in April.
The case against Walsh and Clinton is based largely on a March 27, 2020 decision 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.
At least 76 military veterans who lived in the Holyoke long-term care facility died of COVID-19, prompting a flurry of investigations, terminations and resignations, regulatory reforms and lawsuits. It was one of the deadliest COVID outbreaks at a long-term care facility in the country.
Former Attorney General Maura Healey, who is now governor, announced the charges against Walsh and Clinton in September 2020, alleging that they made a series of decisions that ran counter to common infection control protocols and exacerbated COVID-19's toll inside the home.
The State House News Service contributed to this report.
