Kathryn Stebner supports Attorney General Kamala D. Harris in her August, 2015 involuntary manslaughter charges against Verdugo Valley Skilled Nursing & Wellness Centre, LLC, a controversial skilled nursing facility owned by Shlomo Rechnitz, the state’s largest nursing home operation. The charges accuse the SNF of failing to provide requisite nursing care to a burn victim resident, leading to his death.
The case stems from an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse in the California Department of Justice. Attorney General Harris has created specialized BMFEA teams in composed of legal and nursing professionals to combat abuse, neglect and poor quality of care in California’s nursing homes. Read more here.
This is not the first action Harris has taken against nursing home owner Shlomo Rechnitz. In 2014, The California Attorney General’s office filed an emergency motion in federal bankruptcy court, attempting to block the sale of 19 more facilities to Rechnitz. In that motion, Harris called Rechnitz a “serial violator of rules within the skilled nursing industry.” Read more here.
