SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Owners of the Van Duyn Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing have been ordered by State Supreme Court to share records with investigators from the State Attorney General’s office.
In a decision Tuesday by Judge Gregory Gilbert, Van Duyn has to give the requested information to the AG’s office within seven days.
So far, the facility hasn’t shared anything to comply with the April 26, 2002 subpoena.
The subpoena asked the facility to send in all emails and other electronic communications.
Van Duyn has been accused of resident neglect and fraud.
In court papers, the AG’s office lists 40 allegations of resident neglect at Van Duyn that have allegedly caused serious harm and death.
According to the AG’s office, Van Duyn’s did not safely operate the nursing home and had insufficient staffing to provide residents with the care required by law.
Van Duyn is also accused of diverting Medicaid funds intended for resident care to related companies into the owner’s profits.
Van Duyn has denied the allegations.
The court rejected arguments made by Van Duyn that the state has no authority to issue a subpoena and that the AG’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is improperly acting as a “shadow department of health”
This isn’t the first time Van Duyn has received allegations of neglect. In 2021, the family of Leonard Casciano from East Syracuse, who was transferred to Van Duyn and died, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home.
Leonard Casciano was the brother of NewsChannel 9’s Christie Casciano.
Last year, Van Duyn was accused of working to “obstruct” the State Attorney General’s investigation into the neglectful care of at least 24 residents, seven of whom died. In that case, Gilbert ruled that Van Duyn provide records for 22 other subpoenas after he originally said the facility could withhold those records.
The 513-bed nursing home at 5075 West Seneca Turnpike argued that the acts alleged by the MFCU don’t include fraud or illegality and therefore cannot serve as a basis for a subpoena.
The State Attorney General’s office ordered that Van Duyn’s argument is denied entirely, stating, “running a nursing home without sufficient staff so that Medicaid funds intended for resident care can be siphoned off to benefit the owners is a well-stated allegation of fraud, if not illegal conduct.”
NewsChannel 9 will update this article when more information is available.
