3 years, 4 months ago by Scott Hardy
IL Attorney General's office says "there was not a sufficient basis" to bring charges
The Illinois Attorney General's office says that no charges will be filed after a year-long investigation into the outbreaks of Legionnaires' Disease at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy.
Annie Thompson, Senior Press Secretary for the Attorney General's office said Monday afternoon that the investigation was "concluded without filing criminal charges after determining there was not a sufficient basis to bring criminal charges." Last October, an Adams County Grand Jury issued subpoenas to a state and local agency as part of the investigation into the multiple outbreaks, which happened from 2015 to 2019. Those subpoenas were issued in August 2019 to the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Adams County Health Department. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office, which investigated the outbreaks, asked a judge to order that the agencies keep the documents secret because their disclosure at the time “would greatly impede the investigation.” The same Grand Jury issued a similar subpoena earlier that year to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
14 Vets Home residents died, and dozens of other residents and staff were sickened, due to the multiple Legionnaires’ outbreaks. The administration of former Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, who was in office at the time of the 2015 outbreak, had been accused of waiting up to six days before notifying the public about that outbreak.
