Commonwealth v. Clinton
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The Supreme Judicial Court reversed the judgment of the superior court judge dismissing indictments against Defendants - the superintendent and medical director of the Soldiers' Home in Holyoke - for elder neglect in violation of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 265, 13K (d 1/2) for their alleged failure to provide treatment or services to the veterans housed at Soldiers' Home, holding that the superior court judge erred in dismissing the indictments.
Seventeen days after the Governor declared a state of emergency in the Commonwealth due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Defendants directed their staff to consolidate two floors of elderly veterans onto one floor, and some of the veterans were crowded into a locked space designed to house twenty-five patients at the maximum. Three days later, as many as ten veterans had died from COVID-19. The grand jury determined that probable cause existed to believe that Defendants violated the elder neglect statute. The superior court dismissed the indictments. The Supreme Judicial Court reversed, holding that the grand jury heard testimony that would warrant finding probable cause that (1) there was probable cause that Defendants were caretakers; and (2) Defendants engaged in intentional conduct of omission that involved a high degree of likelihood that substantial harm would result.
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