Patterico's Pontifications

3/18/2021

Gov. Cuomo’s Office Opens Investigation Into Groping Allegations Against…The Governor

Filed under: General — Dana @ 9:18 am

[guest post by Dana]

But first, how is this not damning:

Days after Lindsey Boylan became the first woman to accuse Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of sexual harassment in a series of Twitter posts in December, people tied to the governor started circulating an open letter that they hoped former staff members would sign.

The letter was a full-on attack on Ms. Boylan’s credibility, suggesting that her accusation was premeditated and politically motivated. It disclosed personnel complaints filed against her and attempted to link her to supporters of former President Donald J. Trump.

“Weaponizing a claim of sexual harassment for personal political gain or to achieve notoriety cannot be tolerated,” the letter concluded. “False claims demean the veracity of credible claims.”

The initial idea, according to three people with direct knowledge of the events, was to have former Cuomo aides — especially women — sign their names to the letter and circulate it fairly widely.

Multiple drafts were created, and Mr. Cuomo was involved in creating the letter, one of the people said. Current aides to the governor emailed at least one draft to a group of former advisers. From there, it circulated to current and former top aides to the governor.

The report notes that this is a fairly common tactic used in harassment claims:

The use of such tactics in harassment claims is so commonplace that it has its own acronym: DARVO, which stands for “deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender.”

Along with investigations into the allegations against Cuomo being overseen by the state attorney general and the State Assembly, Cuomo’s office has also opened up its own investigation:

Despite the state attorney general’s ongoing investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, senior aides to the governor said they are also conducting their own “parallel review” of a female aide’s recent account of being groped by Cuomo at the Executive Mansion late last year.

“We have our own inquiries ongoing,” a senior aide to the governor told the Times Union. “We have an obligation to investigate any claim of sexual harassment. And we, after reporting (the female aide’s allegations) to the (attorney general), were directed to continue our own inquiry. … So there are multiple inquiries.”

The attorney for the woman who accused Cuomo of groping her objected to the “shadow investigation” being done by Cuomo’s office:

It’s absurd. Why would you be doing that? It’s not appropriate, and obviously we’re concerned with the ramifications and the effect on witnesses and the quest for the truth.

–Dana

Comments (32)

32 Responses to “Gov. Cuomo’s Office Opens Investigation Into Groping Allegations Against…The Governor”

What a pig.
Dana (fd537d) — 3/18/2021 @ 9:18 am
Well, these tactics worked for Bill Clinton. Obstruction, corrupt use of state power, and witness tampering were part of both impeachment articles. It wasn’t just perjury.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 3/18/2021 @ 9:33 am
The amount of hypocrisy of this is just appalling…

The report notes that this is a fairly common tactic used in harassment claims:

The use of such tactics in harassment claims is so commonplace that it has its own acronym: DARVO, which stands for “deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender.”

Holy *bleep*!!!
I can’t decide if I’m horrified more over Cuomo’s accusations or if there’s an actual name of a process to defend such accusations.
whembly (63cfde) — 3/18/2021 @ 10:56 am
He’s scum, Dem leaders have called for him to resign but I don’t think he could be shamed into tying his shoes, let alone resigning.
Time123 (36651d) — 3/18/2021 @ 11:00 am
I see this turning out like Gov. Northam. Democrats and the media will sound shocked. Demand an investigation. But the investigation will wither on the vine. The shock and outrage will be tabled. Cuomo will remain, just like Northam.

Democrats have never cared about this when one of theirs does it. Never.
Hoi Polloi (15cfac) — 3/18/2021 @ 11:41 am
#5

Hoi — in Virginia, the collection of scandals would have handed control of the state to a Republican. That would have been worse than keeping blackface guy in power.

In NY, the Dems rule if Cuomo stays or goes. So I think he goes. Given the type of guy Cuomo is, it may take some powerful shoving.
Appalled (1a17de) — 3/18/2021 @ 11:46 am
Appalled (1a17de) — 3/18/2021 @ 11:46 am

So you agree with me then.
Hoi Polloi (15cfac) — 3/18/2021 @ 11:58 am
I think Cuomo will go.
Appalled (1a17de) — 3/18/2021 @ 12:02 pm
I think Lindsey Boylan is lying or exaggerating and her credibility isn’t helped by refusing to co-operate wth the New York State Attorney General’s investigation – and she picked presumably independent people to investigate. But Charlotte Bennett is telling the truth. She was the first person to come forward when Lindsey Boylan asked for other people. She spent 4 hours talking to investigators and has contemporary evidence, She complained about a week after it happened.

Another person also reported one detail that was the same, although the rest of what is alleged is different – that Governor Cuomo called her into his office asked for help with the Notes app of his iPhone. In her case it looked real. Nothing untoward happened then but a bit later he asked her if she’d found him a girlfriend. She told him she was working on it.

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Cuomo-s-top-aides-served-as-his-most-protective-16022177.php

This is actually the least serious accusation about Cuomo. More serious is that gives dishonest reasons for doing things; he triangulates everything including Covid restrictions; the dismissal of the Moreland Commission; the Buffalo billion whatever that is; his nursing home edict which he even denied knowing about at first, and would you believe it is reported to be still in effect for group homes for the developmentally disabled; and worst of all, although not a crime, signing the “bail reform” bill in 2019. But I think he must have known and understood what was bad about it.
Sammy Finkelman (03c829) — 3/18/2021 @ 12:47 pm
I see this turning out like Gov. Northam. Democrats and the media will sound shocked. Demand an investigation. But the investigation will wither on the vine. The shock and outrage will be tabled. Cuomo will remain, just like Northam.

Democrats have never cared about this when one of theirs does it. Never.

Hoi Polloi (15cfac) — 3/18/2021 @ 11:41 am

Never is a strong word.
Al Franken and Katie Hill would disagree with it. So would John Conyer’s. That’s off the top of my head.

Also, no sane person thinks wearing blackface as part of an offensive costume 20 years ago is similar to sexual harassment.
Time123 (36651d) — 3/18/2021 @ 12:52 pm
Governor Cuomo has practically admitted what Charlotte Bennett has said, with his only lie about that being claiming to be embarrassed. I think that’s what he told his daughters.

The vaccine czar calling county officials and asking them at least not to call for Governor Cuomo’s resignation means something because so many of Governor Cuomo’s decisions have been arbitrary.
Sammy Finkelman (03c829) — 3/18/2021 @ 12:56 pm
https://nypost.com/2021/03/13/the-courage-of-andrew-cuomos-accusers-goodwin

The initial spark came from Arlene Mullin, a retired Long Island educator whose mother died from the coronavirus in a nursing home in early April.

After hearing a reference to an order mandating that nursing homes accept COVID patients being discharged from hospitals, Mullin found the directive on a state Web site and wrote to me about it. I had never heard of the order, nor had anybody at The Post, so Albany reporter Bernadette Hogan asked Cuomo about it at his briefing last April 20th

Nobody had ever heard of the order ,although it was public.

That’s how little news about New York state government is covered in detail.
Sammy Finkelman (03c829) — 3/18/2021 @ 1:02 pm
The vaccine czar calling county officials and asking them at least not to call for Governor Cuomo’s resignation means something because so many of Governor Cuomo’s decisions have been arbitrary.

Sammy Finkelman (03c829) — 3/18/2021 @ 12:56 pm

It is something. It sounds…Trumpian.
Hoi Polloi (15cfac) — 3/18/2021 @ 2:06 pm
Doonesbury one time ran a cartoon strip that some media censored. He published it in the New Republic and went on with his column. It took a lot to get a comuc strip cancelled altogether. Now Mallard Fillmore ran two controversial cartoons and some publications cancelled his column.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/canceling-the-comics-11616018556

…Gannett Co. announced March 4 that it would banish the Mallard Fillmore strip from its local papers—69 of which carried it, according to the cartoonist, Bruce Tinsley. Amalie Nash, senior vice president of local news at USA Today Network, told the Washington Times “a review of the recent work showed it did not meet our standards.”

She didn’t elaborate, but Mr. Tinsley says his syndicate, King Features, told him the provocation was two strips, published Feb. 19 and 20, satirizing President Biden’s transgender policy. “For too long, segregation sullied women’s sports,” Mr. Biden says in one strip, “They were restricted to women! Thank goodness those dark days are over.” The other had Mr. Biden suggesting one of the things the American people wanted him to do was “help more transgender athletes beat the *@!# out of biological females.”

…In 1985 Mr. Trudeau tastelessly mocked the pro-life documentary “The Silent Scream,” which depicted the abortion of a 12-week pregnancy. The comic imagined “Silent Scream II: The Prequel,” about a 12-week pregnancy. The narrator called the embryo “Timmy” and described the mother as a “murderess” who is “wallowing in self-pity.” Timmy’s final words were “Repeal Roe v. Wade.” Universal Press Syndicate refused to run the strips, so Mr. Trudeau published them in the New Republic instead.

If only the left believed in censorship.
Sammy Finkelman (03c829) — 3/18/2021 @ 2:12 pm
Here are more details;

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/cuomo-vaccine-czar-called-county-execs-assess-their-loyalty-n-n1261105

The calls from Larry Schwartz to county executives in recent weeks to gauge their support for Cuomo, which were first reported by The Washington Post, have also raised the concerns of the Biden administration, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday…

…Schwartz was urging the county executives to wait until James’ probe was completed before passing judgment, the Post reported.

In one instance, Schwartz called a county executive immediately after the executive had got off the phone with another Cuomo administration official about vaccine distribution in the county.

The executive was concerned by the phone call and its timing, and the executive’s legal counsel filed a preliminary complaint with the state attorney general’s office’s public integrity bureau Friday, an official with direct knowledge of the complaint told The New York Times.

Schwartz told the Post, “I did nothing wrong.”

“I did have conversations with a number of county executives from across the state to ascertain if they were maintaining their public position that there is an ongoing investigation by the state attorney general and that we should wait for the findings of that investigation before drawing any conclusions,” Schwartz told the Post in an email.

Schwartz, a former longtime Cuomo aide who has been working as a volunteer in the vaccine effort, also told the paper, “I have always conducted myself in a manner commensurate to a high ethical standard.”

Schwartz told the Times there was no link between vaccine distribution and political considerations.

“At no time has politics ever entered into the discussion or decisionmaking regarding vaccines,” he said. “I have never discussed vaccines in a political context, and anyone who thinks that is seriously mistaken.” …
Sammy Finkelman (03c829) — 3/18/2021 @ 2:20 pm
Siena Poll: Voters Say Cuomo Should Not Resign, 50-35%

Voters say 50-35 percent that Governor Andrew Cuomo should not immediately resign. By 48-34 percent, they say he can continue to effectively do his job as governor. One-third of voters say that Cuomo has committed sexual harassment, one-quarter say he has not, and a plurality are unsure. Voters are satisfied with the way Cuomo has addressed the allegations, 57-32 percent, according to a new Siena College Poll of New York State voters, conducted March 8-12, released today.

Voters approve of Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic, 60-33 percent, virtually unchanged from 61-34 percent last month. Voters give Cuomo positive grades on four specifics related to the pandemic – communicating, providing accurate information, reopening plans, and managing the vaccine rollout – however, when it comes to making COVID-related nursing home death data public, voters give Cuomo a negative grade, 27-66 percent.

“While many elected officials – Democrats and Republicans alike – have called for Cuomo’s resignation, by a 50-35 percent margin, the voters of New York say Cuomo should not immediately resign. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans say Cuomo should resign, however, 61 percent of Democrats and 46 percent of independents, a plurality, say he should not,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “A majority of New York City voters and a plurality of voters from both upstate and the downstate suburbs say he should not resign.
…….
Cuomo has a 43-45 percent favorability rating, down significantly from 56-39 percent in February. His job performance rating is 46-52 percent, down from 51-47 percent last month. Currently, 34 percent of voters say they are prepared to re-elect Cuomo if he runs for re-election in 2022 and 52 percent say they would ‘prefer someone else,’ down significantly from 46-45 percent in February.
…….
“Voters appear to be able to compartmentalize how they feel about Cuomo. While their views on him generally – favorability, job performance, re-elect – took a significant hit this month, voters’ views on Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic remain largely positive, except for his handling of nursing home death data,” (Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg) said. “Two-thirds of New Yorkers, including 56 percent of Democrats, give him a negative grade for making public all data about COVID-related deaths of nursing home patients.”
……….
My emphasis. I’m pretty surprised at the results, given the drumbeat of calls to resign. From a partisan perspective, the longer Cuomo hangs around the worse it will be for Democrats.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2021 @ 2:24 pm
Governor Cuomo has stated that he will not resign, but when the state’s top Democrats and The New York Times have turned against him, it’s time to start the office pools as to when he’ll be gone. April 1st would be most appropriate! 🙂

But, to me, it’s a stunning lack of perspective. The Governor ordered nursing homes to accept COVID positive patients, when there were other facilities available, and then his government covered up the numbers of fatalities, “saying he had withheld it out of concern that the Trump administration might pursue a politically motivated inquiry into the state’s handling of the outbreak in nursing homes.”

The Democrats aren’t worried about that, nosiree bob! They’re considering impeaching him because he made some crudely suggestive remarks to a few women, and may have touched a couple ‘inappropriately.’ That all appears to be unprovable, but his nursing home shenanigans have been documented.
The Dana in Kentucky (fa23a0) — 3/18/2021 @ 2:29 pm
But, to me, it’s a stunning lack of perspective. The Governor ordered nursing homes to accept COVID positive patients, when there were other facilities available, and then his government covered up the numbers of fatalities, “saying he had withheld it out of concern that the Trump administration might pursue a politically motivated inquiry into the state’s handling of the outbreak in nursing homes.”

The Democrats aren’t worried about that, nosiree bob! They’re considering impeaching him because he made some crudely suggestive remarks to a few women, and may have touched a couple ‘inappropriately.’ That all appears to be unprovable, but his nursing home shenanigans have been documented.

1. I think sexually harrasing young women is a great reason for powerful men to resign.
2. The nursing home decision was a mistake when he made it, a tragic mistake. But at the time the concern was keeping hospitals from becoming super spreader events. The cover up looks inexcusable, but no one thinks he made that decision expecting it to turn out like it did.
Time123 (b0628d) — 3/18/2021 @ 2:37 pm
2. The nursing home decision was a mistake when he made it, a tragic mistake. But at the time the concern was keeping hospitals from becoming super spreader events. The cover up looks inexcusable, but no one thinks he made that decision expecting it to turn out like it did.

The deaths of thousands is a bit more than a “tragic mistake.” Especially after four years of hyperbolic outrage at every little thing Trump did.
Hoi Polloi (b28058) — 3/18/2021 @ 7:12 pm
“Especially after four years of hyperbolic outrage at every little thing Trump did.”

Is it hyperbolic to say that Trump is responsible for more deaths that Cuomo?
Davethulhu (6ba00b) — 3/18/2021 @ 7:26 pm
Specifically Trump’s handling of the epidemic.
Davethulhu (6ba00b) — 3/18/2021 @ 7:35 pm
Specifically Trump’s handling of the epidemic.
Davethulhu (6ba00b) — 3/18/2021 @ 7:35 pm

Not to the extent that Cuomo is. Cuomo ordered – ordered – sick elderly patients back to their nursing homes, where they inevitably spread the virus among the most susceptible segment of the population.
Hoi Polloi (b28058) — 3/19/2021 @ 4:16 am
2. The nursing home decision was a mistake when he made it, a tragic mistake. But at the time the concern was keeping hospitals from becoming super spreader events. The cover up looks inexcusable, but no one thinks he made that decision expecting it to turn out like it did.

The deaths of thousands is a bit more than a “tragic mistake.” Especially after four years of hyperbolic outrage at every little thing Trump did.

Hoi Polloi (b28058) — 3/18/2021 @ 7:12 pm

I wasn’t trying to minimize the severity of the outcome. My point is that at the time that decision was made the events in Italy made it appear that CV19 could overwhelm hospitals and they were trying to prevent that. They were wrong about what the best course was. But the mistake was made while trying to do the right thing. People have a tendency to forgive those types of mistakes. Had he done this for any other reason i think people would feel differently.
Time123 (daab2f) — 3/19/2021 @ 4:51 am
Specifically Trump’s handling of the epidemic.
Davethulhu (6ba00b) — 3/18/2021 @ 7:35 pm

Not to the extent that Cuomo is. Cuomo ordered – ordered – sick elderly patients back to their nursing homes, where they inevitably spread the virus among the most susceptible segment of the population.

Hoi Polloi (b28058) — 3/19/2021 @ 4:16 am

The point is that at the time, recall the NY was among the first outbreaks, this wasn’t known to be inevitable. States that were able to form policy after seeing outcomes in NY were able to make better choices. Which is why I think the cover up is a much bigger deal then the initial mistake. It denied people the data needed to make better decisions.

I wish there had been a better coordination of actions and learnings across the different areas in the early part of the crisis.
Time123 (daab2f) — 3/19/2021 @ 4:53 am
Agreed, time123. While the die hard partisans never really allow it, I am totally ok with someone in Cuomo’s situation last year admitting that the data shows a decision was wrong, so that it is not repeatedly. Mistaken decisions with high stakes are actually part of the job at Cuomo’s level.

It’s also why partisans are such a dangerous problem. Cuomo gets reliable cover for his mistakes, and he gets reliable flack, so it almost doesn’t matter what the truth is. The only way it really matters is that it contributed to death to cover up the problem.
Dustin (4237e0) — 3/19/2021 @ 8:35 am
Governor Cuomo couldn’t admit that his edict – which he tried to avoid responsibility for – it was issued by his |Department of Health – he couldn’t admit that his edict was wrong because he persisted in it for some time after it was called to his attention.

He told two lies (or half truths or maybe quarter truths) that I remember.

This was after it was reversed I think.

First – about forcing nursing homes to take patients they couldn’t take care of: No such thing, he said. Every nursing home (for a long time) had the right to request a transfer of any patient they couldn’t take care of. Which, I don’t know, maybe was true, but did they know? And if they asked would they get help? And wouldn’t a home that said that open itself up to an inspection?? I am sure that Governor Cuomo knew full well why that didn’t happen – and besides he prohibited them from finding out the Covid infection status of a patient before they arrived.

I think Cuomo also knew that most nursing homes ordinarily were not up to the standard they were supposed to be at with regard to infection control. This wasn’t something Cuomo wanted publicized.

The second half truth was in response to a question from a reporter bout one nursing home that had asked that Covid patients being discharged from hospitals be sent to the Javits Center or the USS Comfort, which were barely being used. Governor Cuomo’s answer to that was that was not part of the agreement with the federal government.

An outrageous half truth, because Cuomo had easily arranged for the terms to be changed somewhat earlier.

One more thing. He was accused by the New York Post and others of being responsible for all nursing home deaths. Of course this was not true. Staff were primarily responsible. When the Empire Center for Public Policy finally got the figures they calculated that Cuomo’s edict was probably responsible for only one sixth of the deaths – the rest would have happened anyway. (numbers anyway\

They could find statistical significance only with regard to those nursing homes that otherwise would not have an outbreak – which was only those outside the New York City metropolitan area. Some nursing homes in other parts of the state were seeded with Covid by a discharged hospital patient.
In New York City and its suburbs Covid was already endemic by March 25, and had other ways of getting into a nursing home.

And I say the real root of the problem was barring visitors. There was no one to sound the alarm and maybe pull their family members, in some cases, but of there. And let me say something else: Sending someone who was not infected to a nursing home also risked their deathsbecause they were hotspots. No social distancing there..
Sammy Finkelman (daebd1) — 3/19/2021 @ 9:09 am
“Not to the extent that Cuomo is. Cuomo ordered – ordered – sick elderly patients back to their nursing homes, where they inevitably spread the virus among the most susceptible segment of the population.”

The butcher’s bill for Trump’s downplaying of severity of covid, and his support of anti-masking and anti-social distancing easily exceeds Cuomo. His silence while 40% of Republicans are reluctant to get the vaccine (which he claims credit for) will keep piling those bodies up, too.
Davethulhu (6ba00b) — 3/19/2021 @ 10:17 am
Trump didn’t dpwnplay mainly the severity of Covid – in thatt interview with Woodward he said it was plenty severe – he downplayed the risk of spread within the United States. And he was beingtold it could be contained.

All the information being issued about contagiousness is still wrong. Fomites or surfaces are virtually irrelevant. Fourteen days is far too long a quarantine period. Social distancing has to be much more to be effective and all those guidelines apply to people without masks. Masks cut the rate in half or maybe 80% of both parties are wearing masks and it can still get it throguh the eyes. The dose of virus is extremely important. Reducing it s very important. Low enough and it amounts too a vaccination – a somewhat dangerous one though.

Ventilation is extremely extremely important so much so that if nobody is coughing or experiencing obvious symptoms, an air exchange of 12 or 18 times an hour like on an airplane or a New York City subway car makes getting a serious case virtually impossible. Six times or four times an hour should be the bare minimum. Note: A person who gets a not too serious case can give others a more serious case as the initial dose os higher. Go through several iterations and you get hospitalizations or worse. Regeneron antibodies work both as a cure and a prophylactic.

We’re getting to see more serious variants – either one in which the vaccine is less effective and the Eli Lilly antibody doesn’t work or just more contagious and spreading faster in the body.

Trump didn’t mislead anybody involved because officials making decisions weren’t getting their information for Trump – at least Democrats were not – but Cuomo potentially misled people about the dangers of nursing homes
Sammy Finkelman (03c829) — 3/19/2021 @ 1:14 pm
Who says you have to be African American to use the race card, or at least borrow it? I knew of course that the race card is a cover for corruption and machine politics but it is interesting to see it so blatant. Note: the two legislative leaders, who are now both black, are not part of this, ad one doesn’t much like Cuomo – he famously once accused her of not understanding the suburbs, and she told him that she was a suurban legislator – representing Yonkers and other part of Westchester.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/andrew-cuomo-plots-his-survival-11616108915

…Wednesday there was an event in Harlem ostensibly to publicize a pop-up vaccination clinic at Mount Neboh Baptist Church, where the embattled governor, Andrew Cuomo, was vaccinated (the Johnson & Johnson one-shot). It was really a planned and raucous rally for a governor under impeachment threat and accused of sexual harassment and nursing-home deaths.

Civil-rights veterans, clergy and politicians rallied ’round the governor, who for the first time in many weeks seemed in a bouncy mood, in part because he’d banned the press—his office claimed “Covid restrictions”—which kept them from asking questions that got in the way of the message, which was: The people are with Andrew. Former Rep. Charlie Rangel, who’d been dean of New York’s congressional delegation, said, “When people start piling up on you . . . you go to your family and you go to your friends because you know they are going to be with you.” Hazel Dukes, president of the state NAACP, called Mr. Cuomo her son. “Thank you, governor, for all you have done, we stand with you.”

It was one of those moments when politics has real human energy. But the crowd, while pumped, was not numerous, and the speakers were old. Mr. Rangel is 90, Ms. Dukes 89. I wondered what kind of pull they have in this young city.

Still, it was a shot fired back when you thought he was all out of ammo….

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/nyregion/cuomo-black-leaders.html

As he faced the worst political crisis of his tenure, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo visited a Black church in Harlem this week to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

But he clearly had another agenda as well. One Black minister or political figure after another rose to offer praise for Mr. Cuomo, with the leader of the state’s chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., Hazel N. Dukes, even referring to the governor as her son, insisting that “he ain’t white.”

Then Charles B. Rangel, the former longtime congressman and New York political icon, heralded the importance of due process, telling people to “back off until you get some facts.”

When opposition starts “piling up,” said Mr. Rangel, now 90, “You go to your family, you go to your friends because you know they will be with you.”
Sammy Finkelman (03c829) — 3/19/2021 @ 2:22 pm
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/19/nyregion/cuomo-nursing-homes-covid.html

This shouldn;t be taking as necessarily meaning too much. The fact of the matter is, when Melissa DeRosa claimed to Albany Democrats that the reason Cuomo concealed facts was [to obstruct an federal invsstigation) she was lying.]

Perhaps it was to conceal a near bribe by some lobbying group.
Sammy Finkelman (03c829) — 3/19/2021 @ 2:45 pm
https://www.propublica.org/article/fire-through-dry-grass-andrew-cuomo-saw-covid-19-threat-to-nursing-homes-then-he-risked-adding-to-it

June 16, 2020, 6 a.m. EDT

On April 3, Stephanie Gilmore, a 34-year-old nurse working at the Diamond Hill nursing home in Troy, New York, was summoned to a supervisor’s office. The home’s administrator and nursing director were there to relay some distressing news.

Gilmore said they told her that a resident in the home had recently gone to the hospital, where she tested positive for COVID-19. The resident was set to return to Diamond Hill, making her the first confirmed COVID-19 case at the 120-bed facility north of Albany.

The risks to the home’s staff and other residents were obvious: The virus was ravaging nursing homes across the country.

But the week before, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his health commissioner, Howard Zucker, had all but made such discharges mandatory. If a hospital determined a patient who needed nursing home care was medically stable, the home had to accept them, even if they had been treated for COVID-19. Moreover, the nursing home could not test any such prospective residents — those treated for COVID-19 or those hospitalized for other reasons — to see if they were newly infected or perhaps still contagious despite their treatment. It was all laid out in a formal order, effective March 25. New York was the only state in the nation that barred testing of those being placed or returning to nursing homes….

….By June, 18 of Diamond Hill’s residents had died from the virus and 58 had been infected. At least 50 of the facility’s more than 100 workers had also been sickened with COVID-19.

States that issued orders similar to Cuomo’s recorded comparably grim outcomes. Michigan lost 5% of roughly 38,000 nursing home residents to COVID-19 since the outbreak began. New Jersey lost 12% of its more than 43,000 residents.

In Florida, where such transfers were barred, just 1.6% of 73,000 nursing home residents died of the virus. California, after initially moving toward a policy like New York’s, quickly revised it. So far, it has lost 2% of its 103,000 nursing home residents.
Sammy Finkelman (03c829) — 3/19/2021 @ 2:52 pm
August 27, 2020:

https://13wham.com/news/local/cuomo-pushes-back-against-doj-investigation-into-nursing-homes

During a conference call Thursday, Cuomo pushed back against the investigation. He accused Attorney General William Barr of “playing politics.”

“Mr. Barr cannot spell the word ‘justice,’” Cuomo said. “He lost all credibility in this position. He doesn’t even feign to be impartial.”

Three other states are also under investigation., Cuomo said 14 other states followed the same guidance issued by the CDC….

Aug 26, 2020:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-requesting-data-governors-states-issued-covid-19-orders-may-have-resulted

Today the Justice Department requested COVID-19 data from the governors of states that issued orders which may have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan required nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients to their vulnerable populations, often without adequate testing…

he Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is evaluating whether to initiate investigations under the federal “Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act” (CRIPA), which protects the civil rights of persons in state-run nursing homes, among others. The Civil Rights Division seeks to determine if the state orders requiring admission of COVID-19 patients to nursing homes is responsible for the deaths of nursing home residents.

On March 3, 2020, the Attorney General announced the Justice Department’s National Nursing Home Initiative. This is a comprehensive effort by the department, led by the Elder Justice Initiative and in strong partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that uses every available tool to pursue nursing homes that provide substandard care to their residents. As announced on April 10, 2020, the department is also investigating the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where COVID-19 has taken the lives of at least 76 residents.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-investigation-conditions-nursing-home-veterans-massachusetts-announced

The data requests and Soldiers’ Home investigation are not accusations of fault or wrongdoing by the states or any other individual or entity, and the department has not reached any conclusions about these matters.
Sammy Finkelman (03c829) — 3/19/2021 @ 2:57 pm

3/18/2021

Gov. Cuomo’s Office Opens Investigation Into Groping Allegations Against…The Governor

32 Responses to “Gov. Cuomo’s Office Opens Investigation Into Groping Allegations Against…The Governor”

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