Cong. Seth Moulton Speaks Out on June, 2020 Death at Bedford VAMC

December 5, 2020

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton Friday issued a blistering criticism of the police force at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Bedford, following the release of the Middlesex County district attorney’s investigation into the circumstances surrounding the June death of a resident found in a stairwell on the hospital grounds.

“The Bedford VA Police Department failed to locate a missing veteran in the care of Caritas on the VA’s campus, steps from his bed, for five weeks,” the Salem Democrat, whose district includes Bedford, said in a statement. “That’s unacceptable and emblematic of the lack of accountability at the Bedford VA Police Department, which lost my trust long ago.”

Earlier in the day, DA Marian Ryan said Timothy White’s death was “a tragic situation made even more difficult by the circumstances surrounding the location of his body and the lack of information that was provided to his family.”

The body of White, a veteran who lived in an apartment on the campus administered by Caritas Communities, was discovered on June 12 in Building 5 of the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital on Springs Road. He hadn’t been seen since May 8 and had been reported missing by a Caritas employee five days later. Another resident who mistakenly entered the stairwell discovered the body a month later.

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The investigation, Ryan said, “revealed a pattern of poor communication and an absence of policies and protocols which resulted in a failure for any agency to have clear and complete control over the stairwell. What is obvious is that the situation between the VA and Caritas is untenable.”

The DA’s office issued five recommendations. Only one referenced the Police Department, without naming it: “Processes should be implemented for the regular patrol of common areas of the buildings, specifically stairwells, elevators and other places where a person would not be readily visible.”

Moulton contended that the episode was the latest in a series of problems going back almost two years, and that “local police forces should be given lead investigatory authority when lives are on the line. The federal government should fund local police investigations on VA campuses.”

The congressman, who was recently re-elected to his fourth term, served four years in the Iraq War as a Marine Corps officer.

He pointed out that after the discovery of the body, Moulton, two of his Bay State House colleagues and the state’s two senators, “demanded an inspector general’s investigation into why the VA Police failed to locate Mr. White.” Last month he continued, he called for “an update on the VA’s investigation in an additional Congressional inquiry to the VA. The inquiry has not yet been formally answered.”

The district attorney’s investigation “has opened several leads for Congressional oversight,” the statement continued. “I have begun identifying legislative and Congressional oversight action to reform the VA Police Department independently from the VA secretary.”

The statement recounted that in June 2019, “the House Committee on Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on the VA Police Department and multiple inspectors general reports, which found systemic leadership failures in the VA Police.” Moulton said he was granted a temporary seat on the committee so he could participate in the hearing when he testified about problems at the Bedford facility and questioned the police force’s lack of accountability.

“I urge the inspector general to conclude the federal investigation as soon as possible and to propose additional legislative reforms in the IG report to Congress concerning leased facilities,” the statement read.

Ryan’s other four recommendations were: improved communication with families by Caritas; more care on the release of public information to ensure that the family is notified first; clear guidelines on processes in response to a missing resident; and agreement between the hospital and Caritas on access to and responsibility for common areas.

“Today, even with the release of this report, Mr. White’s family is left without a clear understanding of exactly what happened in the days between when he was reported missing and when he was located a month later, further compounding the pain of their loss,” the district attorney’s statement read.

“The review found that given the delay in discovering Mr. White’s body in the stairwell, the medical examiner was not able to determine whether he died of natural causes where he was found or if he was injured or incapacitated for a period of time before his death, either from dehydration or lack of medical treatment. Therefore, no assessment of whether his death was the product of wanton or reckless conduct can be made by this office. A number of factors converged to create this situation, some which are understandable and some of which must be addressed.”

“To ensure that this situation does not repeat itself and that no family will suffer a similar fate in the future, these shortfalls should be addressed immediately,” said District Attorney Ryan. Moulton opened his statement by saying, “Tim White deserved better from the country he served than a lonely death in an empty stairwell.”

Mike Rosenberg can be reached at [email protected], or 781-983-1763
Click this link to learn more about The Bedford Citizen’s first community reporter.
 

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