(WXYZ) – Criminal charges may be pending against Governor Gretchen Whitmer for placing patients with COVID in nursing homes used as centers in the beginning of the pandemic.
New Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido says people who have lost loved ones to COVID as residents or employees in nursing homes should return to get vital information about the circumstances of his death and take it to the local police and make a wrongful death claim.
Lucido says that under HIPAA laws, he cannot obtain this information in his own investigation.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is currently under investigation for allegedly tampering with the number of COVID deaths in nursing homes. Lucido says that only 5 states, including Michigan and New York, have used health centers as centers.
Lucido told 7 Action News: “If we discover that there was an intentional neglect of the position, if we discover that there was an irresponsible danger to a person’s life by bringing them in, then we would proceed with the charges against the governor. Of course, we would. Nobody is above the law in this state. “
Anyone who has had loved ones in nursing homes during the past year knows the pain of isolated COVID deaths without personal visits.
Lucido started studying this last year as a state senator. He issued a statement in August that said more than 2,000 residents and 21 employees died in nursing homes, 32% of all deaths.
Lucido is asking people to return to nursing homes and gather vital information about the deaths and take them to the local police to file a wrongful death report.
He will meet with the Macomb County Police to instruct them on how to process and verify the information and take it to his office.
“Why did my mother or why did my father, brother, sister or aunt die? Was it because of the policy of bringing patients infected with COVID that spread to my mother that killed my mother? ”Said Lucido.
After becoming a prosecutor this year, Lucido asked other county prosecutors to form a Blue-Ribbon Committee to consistently investigate these cases.
That association, as a group, declined and said that Lucido should make the request to the Michigan Attorney General and the feds. Lucido provided letters showing that he did this last May.
The attorney general said there was no adequate basis for opening a criminal investigation. The US attorney said he would review his request.
“I was not very well received. This is not political for everyone. These are people who died at the behest of a policy created by the governor, ”Lucido told 7 Action News.
We received a statement from Governor Whitmer that says:
Our top priority from the start was to protect Michiganders, especially the elderly and the most vulnerable. Management policies carefully monitored the CDC’s guidance on nursing homes and we prioritized testing of residents and staff of nursing homes to save lives. At the beginning of the pandemic, the state acted quickly to create a network of regional centers with adequate isolation units and PPE to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within a facility. In addition, we offer 100 percent of nursing home residents priority access to the vaccine. Both the former head of AARP, as well as an independent study by UM, praised our work to save lives in nursing homes.
Lucido’s comments are shameful political attacks, not based on facts or reality. Even his former colleague, Republican Senator Ed McBroom, said he “saw no evidence or testimony to say that a nursing home was forced to receive someone against his will”. And there is a reason why Lucido’s colleagues publicly rebuked this waste of money from politically motivated taxpayers. The michigans are tired of these petty party games, and we are not going to be distracted by them either.