New safeguards announced at veterans home following Turn To Tara investigation
Senior reporter Tara Rosenblum exposed the alleged assault that was caught on hidden camera video inside the New York state-run veterans home - and shared first on News 12.
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There has been a major development in News 12's Turn To Tara investigation into the alleged abuse of a Gulf War veteran inside a New York state-run nursing home.
Senior reporter Tara Rosenblum exposed the alleged assault that was caught on hidden camera video inside the New York state-run veterans home - and shared first on News 12.
The aide, Matthew Cox, was arrested after the video appeared to show him assaulting Albert O'Toole.
Rosenblum's follow-up investigation raised another troubling question about how the aide who was accused of abusing him got hired in the first place, despite multiple previous run-ins with the law.
State leaders say the facility is now making changes.
State Sen. Pete Harckham says he and four other state lawmakers met with officials after finding out about the alleged assault on News 12.
"We were absolutely shocked," he says. "They said that their background check didn't turn up anything. Obviously, yours did. They need to do a better job."
He says they were told new safeguards are already being put in place at the Montrose, New York facility.
"They're retraining personnel on their policies and procedures...increasing training, increasing oversight, things like daily skin checks," he says. "But this is another thing that they're going to need to look at - and that's hiring practices."
Sen. Harckham says lawmakers are expected to meet with facility leaders again in the coming weeks to find out whether those changes are working because he says new training and daily checks are not enough.
"I said from the beginning I think we need to have a top-to-bottom review," he says. "How did so many people miss this? It's troubling enough that there was an abusive caregiver, but were people silenced? Were people scared into silence? How did people miss the signs, the bruises?"
The scrutiny now stretching to the nation's capital.
Rep. Mike Lawler says he is also pressing state and federal officials to determine whether other residents may have been harmed.
"If there are repeated incidents with others, that needs to be uncovered immediately," he says.
The accused aide, Matthew Cox, is set to face a judge again later this month.
