Post by Logan on Jun 20, 2016 7:33:57 GMT -6
LANSING — Two U.S. Army veterans accused Attorney General Bill Schuette of hypocrisy Thursday for recently trumpeting an investigation into abuse and other problems at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans when Schuette’s attorneys argued in a 2011 civil lawsuit that veterans were free to leave the home if they didn’t like the treatment and conditions there.
“He not only sided with the abusers, he fought the veterans tooth and nail to silence the complaints,” Nikki Smith of Sterling Heights, a U.S. Army veteran and lifelong Democrat, said at a news conference organized by the Michigan Democratic Party.
Schuette defended the state when veteran Tony Spallone, a resident of the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans, sued in 2011 to stop the privatization of nursing aide jobs at the home. The state said the move would save $4 million a year, but Spallone and other residents said it would leave them in the care of poorly trained nursing aides who experienced high turnover due to low wages, and in some cases injured veterans through neglect or incompetence.
At that time, the veterans already had experience with nursing aides provided by J2S Group of Grand Rapids because the firm already had a contract to provide nursing aides to supplement the state workers.
Read more: www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/06/16/bill-schuette-accused-hypocrisy-abuse-veterans/85987676/
“He not only sided with the abusers, he fought the veterans tooth and nail to silence the complaints,” Nikki Smith of Sterling Heights, a U.S. Army veteran and lifelong Democrat, said at a news conference organized by the Michigan Democratic Party.
Schuette defended the state when veteran Tony Spallone, a resident of the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans, sued in 2011 to stop the privatization of nursing aide jobs at the home. The state said the move would save $4 million a year, but Spallone and other residents said it would leave them in the care of poorly trained nursing aides who experienced high turnover due to low wages, and in some cases injured veterans through neglect or incompetence.
At that time, the veterans already had experience with nursing aides provided by J2S Group of Grand Rapids because the firm already had a contract to provide nursing aides to supplement the state workers.
Read more: www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/06/16/bill-schuette-accused-hypocrisy-abuse-veterans/85987676/