HOLYOKE — Embattled Holyoke Soldiers' Home Superintendent Bennet Walsh resigned Thursday, acting a step ahead of ongoing efforts to fire him following a coronavirus outbreak at the state run facility that left dozens of elderly veterans dead.
In a letter dated Oct. 1 and addressed to the Holyoke Soldier’s Home Board of Trustees, Walsh called his service at the home a “tremendous honor” and waived his right to a hearing scheduled for Monday, Oct. 5.
A notice for the special meeting included a brief agenda listing an executive session “to discuss the discipline or dismissal of, or complaints or charges brought against, a public officer, employee, staff member or individual.” The trustees also met in executive session Wednesday evening.
Kevin Jourdain, chairman of the Board of Trustees, said Friday that the Oct. 5 meeting has been canceled.
“The Board of Trustees looks forward to a thoughtful and robust search process to fill this critical leadership position," Jourdain said in a statement. "The Board of Trustees will seek a candidate who is highly qualified and able to lead the facility to its full potential to provide our veterans with the outstanding care they so richly deserve.”
Walsh and Dr. David Clinton — once the top medical adviser at the Soldiers' Home — have each been charged with 10 criminal counts related to the deadly COVID-19 outbreak that claimed the lives of at least 76 residents.
Walsh and Clinton are accused of negligence for combining units at the home and thus, according to state prosecutors, enabling the spread of virus.
Walsh, 50, was appointed head of the Soldiers' Home in 2016 after the retirement and resignation of the facility’s two top administrators over what they described as deficiencies in staffing and funding. He was put on paid administrative leave in late March as deaths mounted at the home and the state sent in an emergency response team.
Walsh was fired by Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders and Gov. Charlie Baker on June 24, the day a report on the outbreak by Boston attorney Mark Pearlstein was released to the public. Clinton, the facility’s medical director, resigned the same day and Francisco Ureña, secretary of the state’s Department of Veterans' Services, resigned ahead of the report’s release.
In April, Walsh filed a complaint in Hampden Superior Court seeking to delay a meeting of the trustees on his employment status. He later amended the complaint to challenge his termination by the Baker administration, and last month Hampden Superior Court Judge John S. Ferrara ruled the firing was invalid. Only the trustees have the authority to fire the home’s superintendent, the judge ruled.
Reached for comment Friday, Walsh’s uncle and attorney William Bennett said, “The litigation is going to be resolved as well."
Court records show the case was dismissed on Oct. 1. A stipulation of dismissal signed by Bennett and John G. Bagley, an attorney for the trustees, vacated a temporary restraining order that blocked a meeting of the trustees originally scheduled for April 11.
In a letter to Bagley on Friday, Bennett wrote that he had been “looking forward” to Walsh’s opportunity for a hearing before the trustees.
“However, recent events, most specifically the indictment of Superintendent Walsh and doctor Clinton, make a hearing before the Board unreasonable,” Bennett wrote. “The Board needs to focus on their important work with confidence in a new Superintendent and Bennett Walsh needs to focus all his effort and attention on clearing his good name.”
This is a developing story that will be updated after additional reporting.