Families of COVID nursing-home victims blast Cuomo lawsuit being tossed: ‘He should be in prison'
Patricia Biondi, one of eight plaintiffs in the $10 million wrongful-death suit, called Manhattan federal Judge Katherine Polk Failla's Monday decision to dismiss the case over lack of evidence a 'bad joke,' adding Cuomo – the frontrunner in NYC's mayoral race — 'mismanaged the whole COVID crisis' as governor.
'He's just walking away scot free, and he has the nerve to run for office again?' said Biondi, 72, of Wappingers Falls, NY, whose husband of over 30 years, Michael, 77, died of the bug in November 2020 — just a month after checking into a Mohegan Lake nursing home for physical therapy.
'Cuomo should be in prison – not running for office,' she said. 'I think what he did was horrendous.'
'He's a real piece of work,' added Biondi, who said neither she nor her two daughters and four granddaughters got to say goodbye to Michael because of strict pandemic restrictions.
Cuomo wound up striking a $5.1 million book deal to write a memoir about leading the state during the pandemic.
Stacie Druckman, 52, said she holds Cuomo and his administration responsible for the April 2020 death of her 73-year-old father, Arthur Druckman, at a Bronx nursing home.
Cuomo, she said, 'shouldn't be allowed to run' for mayor.
'People are forgetting what happened, but some people like me aren't,' she said.
Both Biondi and Druckman said they want to appeal the judge's decision, but Biondi conceded it would be a 'longshot' to find a judge in New York who'd rule against Cuomo.
Their lawyer, Joseph Ciaccio, did not return messages but previously told Law 360, 'We will continue to explore all options.'
The Cuomo administration issued a controversial directive on March 25, 2020, forcing New York nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients who were discharged from hospitals, which some experts have said contributed to thousands of deaths. The directive was issued in response to many hospitals statewide – especially in NYC – being overwhelmed with patients and lacking enough beds.
The plaintiffs in the 2023 suit contend their loved ones' deaths were a result of the directive, accusing Cuomo, his top aide Melissa DeRosa and ex-state of Health Department Commissioner Howard Zucker of depriving nursing home residents to 'fundamental rights to life, bodily integrity, and the right to personal security' as required under the 14th Amendment.
The judge in a 44-page order Monday dismissing the suit said the plaintiffs' claims failed to pass legal muster because the state didn't 'create' the virus or imprison the residents.
'The court's sympathy for plaintiffs and their loved ones simply cannot supplant governing law,' the judge wrote.
Brooklyn federal Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall in September dismissed a similar 2022 suit filed by borough resident Daniel Arbeeny, whose father contracted the virus in a Brooklyn nursing home and died.
Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi hailed the latest ruling, proclaiming, 'once again, justice has prevailed.'
'As we pass the fifth anniversary of COVID, the pain of those who have lost loved ones continues to be weaponized for political purposes and electoral gain at the highest levels,' he said. 'However, anytime this issue gets taken out of the press or the political arena and into the courts, the truth wins.'
'We are very sorry for her loss, but Mr. Biondi passed seven months after the [state Department of Health] guidance was no longer in place — showing once again how much people's pain was weaponized and politicized to the point where there is no relationship to the facts,' added Azzopardi.
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Still, a week is a small sample size — far from enough time for data to show meaningful shifts, Asher said. Referring to the monthlong period that D.C.'s home rule law allows the president to exert control over the Police Department, he said: 'I think 30 days is too short of a period to really say anything.' Brown, Whitehurst and Megerian write for the Associated Press. AP writers Michael Kunzelman, Alanna Durkin Richer, Jacquelyn Martin and Ashraf Khalil contributed to this report.
