Criminal case against Bennett Walsh, the former superintendent of the Veterans’ Home in Holyoke, and Dr. David Clinton, the home’s former medical director, were facing five counts of criminal neglect after the Massachusetts’ highest court overruled a lower court judge last year and reinstated the charges.
Yesterday Hampden Superior Court Judge Edward J. McDonough accepted their request that each charge be continued without a finding (CWOF) for a three-month probationary period — a plea in which they acknowledge facts in the case could result in a guilty verdict on each count.
Write your State Representative and/or Senator to work on a bill to hold people in charge of facilities with criminal sentences that fit the crime. These two defendants are getting off without even a conviction on the death's of 76 Veterans due to their actions & decisions.
MGL definition of a CWOF (Continue without a finding):
In Massachusetts, a Continuance Without a Finding (CWOF) is a plea when a defendant is charged with a criminal offense including an OUI offense. The defendant admits that there are sufficient facts that a jury could find them guilty. If the court accepts the continuance without finding, the Defendant is not deemed convicted of the offense1234. A CWOF is not a conviction because the disposition does not satisfy the first prong of the conviction definition under INA 101 (a) (48), which requires a plea of guilty, nolo or an admission to sufficient facts
