Monday, October 11, 2021

11 October 2021: U.S. DOJ Interviews Staff at NJ Veterans Homes

Federal investigators interview staff at N.J. veterans homes where pandemic deaths soared

The Department of Justice is making slow progress in its civil rights probe of officials at New Jersey's nursing homes for veterans that saw excess COVID deaths.

The U.S. Department of Justice this week stepped up its yearlong probe into whether the pandemic response was mishandled at two state-run veterans homes when it sent investigators to interview staff and residents and observe the care that is provided.

Lee Moore, spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office, confirmed Department of Justice officials were on site at the Paramus and Menlo Park veterans homes conducting interviews for its inquiry into whether residents were provided adequate medical care.

“The DOJ visited the Menlo Park and Paramus veterans homes in the past week. This visit is part of the normal course of events given their inquiry, and we are doing everything we can to ensure they have the information they need,” Moore wrote in an email....

Meanwhile, dozens of lawsuits are pending against the state for gross negligence, filed by the families of veterans and their spouses who died, as well as employees who died or were put in harm’s way. Employees were discouraged from and even penalized for wearing masks early in the pandemic so not to alarm residents. Residents say the facilities did not segregate COVID-19 residents from the non-infected, allowing the virus to spread.

The U.S. DOJ's New Jersey civil rights probe continues despite the Biden-Harris administration's actions to discontinue similar probes in New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Each of these states imposed policies like the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive, which forced nursing homes to admit COVID patients being discharged from hospitals to free up hospital bed space. Coronavirus infections spread from the mixing of these patients with uninfected residents and staff members, which ultimately resulted in excess COVID deaths.

Background information from the timeline:

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